Mothers and children gather for food distribution in Isiolo

As we reach Camp-Garba Dispensary at the Catholic Mission of St Antioconear Isiolo town, there are more than a hundred women with their babies and young children waiting in the compound. From afar it looks like a convivial gathering as the women seated under the shade of a tree are casually chatting to each other.  

We’re warmly greeted by Veronica Mathe and Silas Karethi, Volunteer Community Health Workers at the Camp-Garba Dispensary, where ActionAid distributes food to some of the most at risk in the region which includes children under five, breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women.

“In April, at the beginning of the drought, we had 112 cases of severe malnutrition here,” says Veronica.  “Now we have 266 and not all cases are in the programme as many of them have yet to be included.” 

Veronica adds:

The numbers are always rising. As you can see here, we’re admitting at least 30 new cases a day and every month we see more and more at risk cases.

ActionAid in conjunction with the World Food Programme and Kenya’s Ministry of Health runs a Supplementary Feeding Programme here where it distributes a ready to use nutritionally rich corn-soya blend mix. Complete with mineral supplements, the corn-soya porridge is specifically formulated for malnourished children and a portion is a meal on its own.

Soon, some of the women from the compound start joining us on the veranda. When I ask Veronica what’s going on she explains that the women want to talk to us. They want to tell us their stories and the problems they’ve been facing since the drought.

Veronica explains:

ActionAid is one of the only charities assisting people in this area at the moment. That’s why they want to talk to you. They know that you will listen to them and that you can help them and their children.

We meet Katra Hussein Mohamed Asano. She is holding her daughter Abril Hussein, a severely malnourished 18-month old toddler who weighs only 6kg, the weight of a healthy 5-month-old baby.

“The baby’s weight started decreasing because we had many problems at home. When the baby was very small we used to also give her camel’s milk, but because of the drought we lost our camels. We used to have three camels but they died last February,” Katra explains.

My baby is categorized as severely malnourished and is now on Plumpy’nut and our family is part of the supplementary feeding programme. Since my baby started taking the Plumpy’nut program she is improving.

Plumpy'nut is a peanut-based food that is used in famine relief. The ingredients are peanut paste, vegetable oil, powdered milk, powdered sugar, vitamins, and minerals, combined in a sterile foil pouch.

ActionAid distributes 7kg of corn soya blend per month per malnourished child and often provides a protection ration to feed the rest of the family with an extra 10kgs.

Enrico Eminae, Regional Coordinator for ActionAid Kenya explains that the real challenge lies with feeding the children. “The problem comes when you only give food to the one malnourished child in the family. If you only provide food-aid for one child the ration will certainly end up shared among the others in the household.”

To get round this problem ActionAid also gives extra food for the rest of the family so that they don’t interfere with the malnourished child’s progress. But during these hard times the extra food is sometimes not sufficient.

As Jamarose Akuam a widow with five children explains:

The amount of food I get a month sometimes only lasts us for three days. Though it is supposed to be supplementary, it’s all the food I have and I feed the kids with it everyday.