How NGO's food rations keeps children in school

Child Fund Kenya President Anne Goddard serves food to children when she visited one of the ECDE centres in Baragoi, Samburu County on September 11. [James Wanzala, Standard]

 

It is 3pm on a sunny Monday. Antonila Lelokong, a 28-year-old widow, has been queuing under the blistering sun for hours with her four-month-old baby wrapped on her back.

She has to. Her other two children are waiting for her to have their first meal of the day.

Lelokong, like the other women at Bendera Primary School in Baragoi, Samburu County, are lining up to receive eight kilogrammes of maize, seven kilogrammes of beans and one litre of cooking oil as well as an empty 20-litre jerican.

On a normal day, she would be in the bush with her neighbours burning charcoal from which they eke out a living.

This relief food donation is given twice or once a month, depending on the availability of rations and drought situation in the county.

Worst affected

“I will turn about eight kilos of maize into flour then cook githeri with the rest and I hope it lasts the whole month,” says Lelokong, her face beaming with joy.

Since February 10, when the Government declared drought a national disaster, with 23 counties being affected, surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health showed that Samburu County was among the worst affected. It was ranked third most affected after Isiolo and Marsabit counties as Turkana came fourth.

The Government estimated that the number of people in need of assistance had gone up to three million and was expected to rise.

It is here that Child Fund Kenya (CFK), a local NGO, made an emergency appeal to various donors across the world in March this year, requesting for $2.36 million (Sh243 million) to feed 44,562 people in five counties, including Nairobi’s Mukuru slums.

CFK, which works in 26 counties in arid and semi-arid areas, could be the only organisation that has braved the dangers of cattle rustling and banditry to ensure that the Samburu child goes to school and woman is healthy.

“Our goal has been to target children under five years since the Government declared the drought a national disaster in February. Our focus is to boost the children’s nutrition,” says Anne Goddard, President of Child Fund Kenya.

“The brains of children, particularly under the age of five, are growing fast and if they do not get the right nutrition supplement, their mental growth will be adversely affected. We do not want today’s drought to affect the child 20 years from now.”

Early marriage

Ms Goddard says they also focus on pregnant and lactating women.

The organisation also protects girls against early marriage, child labour and female genital mutilation (FGM).

To date, it has received $1.4 million (Sh144.9 million) from donors for the programme and has distributed 329 tonnes of food items— including unimix flour, rice, maize, beans, cooking oil and water — to 31,862 school and pre-school children and 12,700 pregnant women and lactating mothers.

In Samburu North, the organisation supports 79 Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres, including Bendera, Naling’ang’or and Legetei and provides food to the pupils.

“Initially before the food rations, enrolment was very low, considering these are nomadic people who travel with their cattle and children to look for pasture and food,” says Laurence Lorunya, an ECDE teacher at Naling’ang’or centre.