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JVA/Nairobi contributes food, clothes, funds for drought relief
JVA/Nairobi staff with goods collected for Kenyans affected by drought and famine. The Kenyan government has declared a national disaster and has called for national and international efforts to raise aid to provide food for about 2.5 million people.
Photo: Quinn Kariuki, JVA/Kenya
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Since November 2005, many parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Tanzania have been experiencing the steady spread of drought and famine conditions. The situation has been worsened by the failure of the expected short rains for the planting season. Northern and eastern Kenya have been especially hard hit. Crop failure and depletion of livestock herds due to the prolonged drought have led to famine conditions, with dozens of deaths reported in the arid areas.
Church World Service is responding in Kenya as a lead agency in a multi-agency response that includes members of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Nairobi Forum. CWS and its ACT and Kenyan partners are undertaking a 12-month, $754,000 schedule of relief and rehabilitation activities, including the immediate distribution of food and water, and borehole drilling and/or repair in specific key areas.
For their part, staff of the CWS-administered Joint Voluntary Agency in Nairobi collected food, clothes, and funds for the purchase of non-perishable food items. The combined collections enabled JVA to contribute 397 pounds of dry beans, 375 pounds of rice, 1,076 pounds of maize flour, 79 pounds of cooking fat, 36 packets of salt, 216 sachets of glucose, four tins of canned tuna, and an assortment of clothing. The goods were presented to the Kenya Red Cross Society on February 13, 2006.
Story compiles reports from Lilian Kihanya, JVA/Kenya, and Chris Herlinger, CWS Emergency Response Program.
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