Three million and a half people with no food because of drought in Kenya, out of a total of about eight million, including Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. Those are the dramatic figures supplied by Caritas Internationalis, which is launching two appeals to help those populations, in these days: 1.2 million dollars are necessary for Kenya, and 45,000 dollars for Djibouti. In a report about the emergency, the Kenya Caritas certified those figures and talked about the death of some people. “Of course said the bishop, Martin Kivuva, in charge of the Social Service and Development Committee of Kenya, the priority is to avoid the loss of more human lives”. About 45 thousand people will benefit from the project. 30 thousand will get food help and 14 thousand will also get food with high nutritional value. Above all, that will be meant for undernourished children, pregnant women and women feeding babies on breast. Above all, the programme is destined to the people who are not receiving help at present, neither from governments nor from international organizations. For instance, “in Isiolo, one of the areas that are suffering from drought to a great extent said the Kenya Caritas, the government rations reach just 10 per cent of the people, and the most undernourished are too weak to reach food distribution centres”. Moreover, over 18,000 farmers will be given plant seeds resisting drought, waiting for the next rains. The programme is carried out by the Kenya Caritas, together with the British Cafod and the Catholic Relief Services, to secure food distribution openness. On the other hand, in Djibouti, about 150,000 people need food help. Above all, the people living on sheep-breeding – that is, depending on the grass of the grassland to feed their animals – are now in great difficulties. The Djibouti Caritas planned contributions for 200 families within the country.
