Local Baptist church helps famine victims in Kenya
Cyclical famine leaves East Africans reliant on aid and desperate for a permanent solution. In Kenya, a local Baptist church steps in to meet immediate needs and help find long-term answers.

GARISSA, Kenya -- It is a different world. Gaunt cows wander the streets past stern men with beards dyed orange -- signifying they have made pilgrimages to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city -- and women covered from head to toe in flowing fabrics.

Just five hours east of Nairobi, Garissa’s desert terrain is vastly different from the lushly blooming capital city. On Sept. 21 Nairobi’s Ruaraka Baptist Church (RBC) joined with International Mission Board missionaries to conduct a small famine relief project in Garissa. They traveled to this city in the North Eastern Province to deliver food, oil, shoes and clothing purchased with donations to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.

East Africa is facing its worst drought in 60 years, affecting more than 11 million people. The United Nations has declared a famine in the region for the first time in a generation. According to the World Food Programme, the number of severely malnourished children admitted to hospitals in Kenya has increased by 78 percent this year compared to last year.

Garissa is largely populated with Somali Muslims who have become naturalized citizens of Kenya. Pastoralism is the preferred way of life, but for three years there has been no rain and now many of the livestock have died or been sold. Emaciated cattle carcasses lie rotting along the dusty, unpaved streets. The people you pass motion hopefully to their mouths with empty water bottles.

In areas like Garissa, herders are hit hardest due to rising costs and lack of food and pastures for their animals. “Where they used to trade two goats for food, they are now trading four goats for the same amount of food,” said Nicholas Wasunna, World Vision’s emergency adviser based in Kenya.

The members of Ruaraka Baptist Church feel a special love for Garissa. They were drawn to the area by Kenyan missionaries Paul and Esther Kamau,* who were called there six years ago. Where the church members, as outsiders from a different tribe, might not normally be welcomed, they now have access through Paul to bring and distribute relief supplies.

“I believe for Christians that this [famine] is an opportunity for us to show the love of Jesus Christ,” said RBC pastor Charles Baraza. “Sometimes we are not going to see that souls are changed on the spot. But I know that whatever we give, even the food, any small thing goes a long way.”

Many of the remote villages around Garissa have become largely dependent on aid for survival. One of the places that received supplies from the Baptists was a dispensary that feeds school children twice a day and gives medicines as needed.

That day a large group of children came for lunch as usual. The children -- beautiful girls with large eyes looking out from beneath headscarves and dusty boys in ripped T-shirts -- gathered hopefully but were turned away. Although the dispensary had food, it had not received their supply of fuel and could not cook the food. The children went hungry, even after watching large bags of rice and beans being unloaded into the building.

Although more severe than usual, the hunger problems in Kenya are not new. RBC founding member Jane Gichuhi says drought peaks every three to five years, and famine comes again. Because the need is repetitive, the situation will not be improved by short-term food donations alone. Training in community development will help community leaders find solutions to their problems.

Baptist Global Response recently provided training in Nairobi to teach humanitarian workers how to empower communities -- guiding them toward finding and accomplishing their own solutions to felt needs. Baraza sees this as a wise way to address the problems in Garissa.

“Community development is a very good approach to connect with these people and [get] solutions from them, not coming up with our own solutions,” Baraza said. “Those people, they have the answers within them.”

This mission to Garissa is not a “hit-and-run.” The church plans to continue going to Garissa to build relationships and slowly develop trust among the people. When that happens, they will be able to work alongside the Kenyan Somalis as they struggle for a permanent resolution to the problem of hunger.

One hundred percent of every dollar given to the World Hunger Fund is used to help hungry and thirsty people around the world. Even a small contribution can make a huge difference. Donate now.