MAMA developing multiple programs to ease maternal health challenges exacerbated by drought in Tiaty East

As drought takes a toll on Baringo County residents, we’re working with the Orus community in Taity East to prepare to implement beekeeping and kitchen gardening projects and custom street business school training to promote socio-economic sustainability, quality nutrition, and entrepreneurial culture.

The multiple programs developed in collaboration with the community will strengthen household incomes, food and health systems and repulse the effects of perennial drought on the families living in the region. 

The seasonal rains failed yet again in Baringo County, making it difficult for the pastoralist East Pokot community to get adequate pastures to feed their livestock. Like many rural parts of Kenya where an estimated 2.1 million people are facing starvation, the East Pokot community has encountered a direly troubling nutritional problem due to the September-December failed rains. 

Tiaty Sub County, which includes both East Pokot and Tiaty East, has a population of over 153,353 people, majority of whom are in dire need of food aid due to drought ravaging many parts of the country. 

During our end of year trip to Orus village, one of the most peaceful villages at the heart of East Pokot, the residents expressed fears that their source of livelihood was threatened by lack of pastures. The massive grazing fields remain empty and dusty. The herders are being forced to relocate elsewhere in search for better pasturelands. 

Currently, one of the most vulnerable groups severely affected by the drought includes expectant and nursing mothers and young children who can hardly access proper nutrition and clean hygienic water for drinking and washing. The Pokot community rely on livestock for meat, milk and exchange for grains. The death of their animals due to drought has hurt the local food system severely. 

A recent report released by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) revealed that Kenyans living in 23 out of 47 counties were in urgent need of food due to failed rains. Baringo County, the home of the East Pokot community, is among the counties NDMA identified to have residents experiencing starvation.

Climate change has adversely affected health and food systems in rural and marginalized areas in Kenya and Africa. Without enough rains to rear animals and grow crops, the Pokot community is at risk of a health crisis. Many expectant and nursing mothers and their children are suffering from anemia due to undernutrition. 

However, the Tiaty East community is optimistic that with the upcoming launch of MAMA Maternity and Wellness Resource Center, more development partners will be coming to the community. 

“MAMA Centre is a blessing to us. It is a symbol of development friends on the way to collaborate with us in solving the persistent problems facing us, such as lack of health infrastructure for our children and expectant mothers, clean water for drinking and washing and for our livestock, and perennial drought,” says Orus Location Chief, Josephine Kakuko.

MAMA is open to working with various stakeholders, to empower the Tiaty East community to solve the myriad obstacles to their maternal health, wellness and socioeconomic development. 

Last month, we distributed cereals to over 360 families in Orus to alleviate hunger and undernutrition affecting the families. Nevertheless, the severe drought requires a long-term intervention by the government and other development partners to provide food assistance, design and implement a drought recovery plan and cultivate sustainable food and health solutions.  

We are working with the community to implement beekeeping and kitchen gardening projects to  strengthen household income, bolster the local economy and reduce overreliance on livestock as the sole source of livelihood.  

MAMA is also looking for partners to implement street business school training program in the Orus area as part of our sustainability focus and vitalizing of the community’s food and health systems.

In the past, we have focused on health education targeting Community health volunteers (CHVs) and Traditional birth attendants (TBAs), equipping them with knowledge and tools to educate the community and assist in safe child delivery, when emergency arises. 

Article by David Njiru