Telling the ECSA Story

 Indicators point to the erosion of gains made for girls' and women's rights in Somalia as the drought worsens. Girls are being forced to drop out of school putting them at risk of harmful traditional practices such as early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Women-run businesses have been hit especially hard with 98% of them having lost revenue and income due to the high cost of goods, and 51% have been forced to close. Photo by Saddam Mohamed/CARE As the primary caregivers in the home, women have the responsibility of taking care of children and this can be extremely difficult when their source of income is disrupted. In Dhobley, Somalia, 42-year-old Faduma arrives at an IDP camp with 100 frail goats from her home in Wajir, Kenya. These are all that remain of her herd which comprised of 300 goats that provided her with milk and meat. She has traveled over 200 kilometers with her four children in order to try and sell the remaining goats. “ Unfortunately, most of ou...

  Amina in the IDP camp in Lower Juba. CARE/Saddam Mohammed Under the blistering heat, and being heavy with child, 28-year-old Amina walked over 100 kilometers for 11 days with her children as life at home had become unbearable. This was as a result of losing all their 50 cows and 30 goats, their family’s sole source of livelihood, due to the ongoing drought in Somalia. Amina found refuge at an Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camp in Lower Juba and has since then not been able to communicate with her husband who she left behind. “Sometimes my children go to bed hungry as I have nothing to give them and because their father is not here to help as I am pregnant. We have lost everything to this drought. Life used to be easy for us when we had our livestock. We could sell some to buy what we need. We ran out of water and pasture, and it was sad seeing all our livestock dying right in front of our eyes. Now we don’t even know what our next meal is going to be and when we will have ...

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, hundreds of kilometers away, communities in Africa are feeling the ripple effects. Across the East, Central, and Southern Africa Region, ordinary citizens are experiencing the initial effects even as indicators, and analysts, point to even more adverse repercussions hitting the region within the next six months. In Kenya, citizens took to social media, under the hashtag #LowerFoodPrices, to vent their frustrations. In response to this, the government reverted indicating that the rising cost was a result of the conflict. While in DRC, inflation of oil, petrol, and gas prices has led to an increase in transport costs for both people and foodstuffs and this threatens CARE’s ongoing projects if the conflict is long-drawn-out. Somalia is currently in the grips of a worsening drought and the conflict in Ukraine makes the situation even more direr. The price of wheat and oil has already risen by 300%. Iman Abdullahi, CARE Somalia Country Director said, “O...

Agatha showcasing her soya nutrition flour "Sote Lishe"     Agatha Mkayula,49, a mother of 6 children, resides in Ibumila village in Iringa DC, Tanzania. In 2017, she engaged in the Growing is Learning project. She has received multiple trainings in Soya farming practices, Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), home gardening, Participatory Scenario Planning, post-harvest management, recordkeeping & data quality, food types, Gender-Based Violence and entrepreneurship. Agatha had an opportunity of participating in the soybean processing training in 2018 and commenced her small scale business. She processed soybean drinks and nutritional flour for children/adults in the same year. "I was engaged in a project as a mere farmer with an increased responsibility of being a lead farmer," Agatha says. Conversely, it was an eye-opener for her. However, Agatha used soft plastic bags to pack soybeans products which limited my markets opportunities due to the use of poor pa...

  In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Kenya. Soon, the pandemic that was sweeping through the globe started spreading in Kenya. As lockdowns were put in place to stem its spread, many people moved to rural areas and inadvertently spread the virus to areas like Mandera where healthcare services are sparse, were stretched. The porous borders between the county and neighboring countries also saw a rise in COVID-19 numbers. On 22 nd April 2020 movement into and out of Mandera was restricted by the National Government health Cabinet Secretary after it became the fifth county in the country to report a spike in COVID numbers. Everything was closed including schools and only essential services were left operational. To combat the spread of the virus, CARE International in Kenya through the Building Opportunities for Resilience in the Horn of Africa (BORESHA) program sought innovative ways to raise awareness. “With some contingency funds in the program, we were abl...

  Khadija Ahmed at the water point at Ashabito, in Mandera. Prior to the drilling of the borehole and operationalization of the pump, the community would have to access water from a waterpan that was also used by cattle and other animals. this exposed them to waterborne diseases like typhoid and cholera. (CARE/ David Mutua) Mandera County is one of the most water insecure counties in Kenya as indicated in the County Government’s 2021 fiscal strategy paper. Perennial droughts and the hot climatic conditions in the county have worsened the situation. In a survey conducted by Rural Agency for Community Development and Assistance (RACIDA) in February 2021, only 49.3% of all households surveyed reported accessing water from safe improved, or semi-improved water points. In Ashabito location, which has been one of the area's hardest hit, Senior Chief Jele Ali explains, “From the colonial days this area has always been quite dry. We used to have two dams which have since dried.” Located in...

  Natural Resource Management (NRM)  clearing weeds on a field enclosed for future grazing. CARE/David Mutua On the border between Kenya and Ethiopia, in Eymolo location, Banisa sub-county of Mandera, Aden Ibrahim and members of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) - group he chairs - go about clearing weeds on one of the group’s two enclosures. As a predominantly pastoralist society, the community in Banisa heavily relies on available pasture for the survival of their livestock. “Management of land and pasture through the establishment of such enclosures is key. We live in a semi-arid region, and we experience frequent droughts and little rainfall, and this causes animals to die due to lack of pasture,” Aden says. Camels searching for food in Eymolo, Banisa sub-county of Mandera County. CARE/David Mutua Rangeland management is critical in ensuring that pasture in the pasture lands are not degraded due to overgrazing. It is the practice of preserving sections of pasture to ...