East Africa: Act now to save lives

The London based Catholic aid and development agency CAFOD is making an urgent appeal for donations to save the lives of men, women and children affected by the devastating drought across East Africa. CAFOD director Chris Bain says: “Every donation is having an impact on the front line of this crisis. You can literally make the difference between life and death for thousands of people over the coming weeks.” Ten million people across the region are suffering from a lack of food and water plus the loss of their livelihoods, with rains not expected before October.
While much of the media coverage of this crisis has focused on the refugees pouring out of Somalia, CAFOD warns the situation is increasingly dramatic for the poorest communities throughout Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and Tanzania as well. The incoming Chairman of CAFOD’s board of trustees, Bishop John Arnold, has just returned from a visit to Isiolo in Northern Kenya. He shares his experiences of the deepening crisis there:
What is your first impression of the drought?
The main impression I have is of the pride and courage of the people. There have been three consecutive years of drought. No one, even the oldest people in these communities, can remember a drought like this.
What are their immediate needs?
The first need is water. Then there is the question of food being supplied to these communities. Curiously, there is another wonderful priority: the education needed for their children. They desperately want their children not to be losing out through these difficult times.
Is there anything that sticks in your mind - something that touched your heart?
I think just being with them, standing in that sunshine beating down among the dust and the arid surroundings. These are people who have come to the end of their ability to cope. In one community when we asked about food stocks, they held out some small plastic bags with some berries. There were also some nuts from the acacia tree which they feed to the livestock, but most of the livestock is dead . We saw a few goats left, there were a couple of chickens, but the rest of the livestock has either been sold off or died. Even when the rains come and they can begin to grow their crops again, they have lost all that investment in their future.
The media has focused on the impact of the drought on refugees, especially in Somalia. Having come to Isiolo, what do think the international community needs to do to assist these communities?
The focus of attention has quite rightly in many ways been on the huge refugee camps in northern Kenya and Somalia. But there is the wider picture. Several hundred kilometres away from those camps, there are pastoral communities that are facing the full devastation of this drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and Tanzania as well. We need to act now because otherwise there will be a catastrophe here too. There are hundreds of communities looking for survival.
In what way has the Catholic Church or CAFOD been reaching out to the victims of drought in this region and other areas?
CAFOD works with local partners who understand what is going on. One of the greatest strengths of the Catholic Church is that it is in all these regions already. There are priests, there are catechists and lay people in the church in all these communities, and CAFOD is working with them. It just takes determination to meet those basic needs.
What would you say to critics who say aid creates a culture of dependence?
Quite simply, I know aid works. I have seen it working. And I have seen in the places I visited groups of people who are proud and do not want to ask for help but are driven to. They ask for the minimum. If we provide the minimum, they will work very hard to provide for anything else that they need. And this is not only here in Kenya, it is in other places where CAFOD is working. People do not want to receive charity. They want to be proud of what they can do for themselves.

For details on how to donate, see CAFOD's website: www.cafod.org.uk