May 31, 2009 Stories

Veronica:

Veronica’s story is the “Poster Child” of the tragedy and struggle to survive that we as donors gladly support. She is 38 years old. She lived in Eldoret with her husband, 7 children and two relatives when the post election violence turned her world upside down. One night during the post election violence rioters set their house on fire. Everyone tried to flee. Later she learned that her husband along with her oldest child and the relatives had burned to death in the fire.

I met Veronica in the Lodwar IDP camp. What caught my eye were the five little children that were following her around. I asked to take pictures of her family and then her “hut”. Even though she has been through so much tragedy she presents herself as confident and going forward with her life and doing what she can to provide for her family.

The government of Kenya gave each IDP (Internally Displaced Person) family the equivalent of $125 for food and to start life over. Veronica spent $100 on food and cooking utensils, soap, and other essentials and invested the remaining $25 in a fish retailing business. She bought fish in Lodwar and sent them to a friend in Kitale who sold the fish at a profit. But when the friend wired the money back via a cell-phone wire service the wrong code was entered and the money went into a different account. She had lost her investment.

Those kinds of set backs do not stop her from being helpful in any way that she can be. Even though she is not a paid distribution assistant she helps out voluntarily anyway. She moves 110 lb bags of maize and split peas as good as any man she works with. My heart goes out to people like her and I pray that someday God will bless her and provide her what she and her family need.



Margret Akoru:

Margret is not a displaced person nor is she receiving relief, but her story still needs to be told. Margret grew up and lives in Lokichar. She is the Headmaster of the local Christian School which is part of the RCEA. There are 470 students and 11 teachers. That is an average class size of 43 students per teacher. The boys make up 60% of the students girls 40%. In Turkana girls are a sign of potential wealth that parents might have when the girl marries and the groom pays an expensive dowry to the bride’s parents. A girl with education has no more potential value than a girl without education. There is no advantage for a girl to be educated.

Margret stated that for each person receiving aid there are three people not receiving aid. I asked Margret about people starving in the camps. She estimated that 50 people starved to death in Lokichar in 2008.

A teacher’s salary is about 144,000 Kenyan Schillings per year, $1,800 or $150 per month which is $1.00 per hour. With this money Margret helps meet the needs of her family and also gives money to support her mother.

Margret’s brother is a minister and the General Secretary of the Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA). Margret is educated with a college degree she is the School Headmaster (Principal), a member of the committee for beneficiary selection and food distribution and a prominent member of the community. There are people who grow up in humble circumstances who go on to make something of their lives and give back to their communities. This is a side of side of Africa that we do not often see in the news or books.


Christin Akoreter:

Christin’s parents are of the Turkana tribe. They migrated from Turkana to Eldoret where the Kalenjin tribe is, for opportunities to work as casual labor; farm workers, security guards, etc. Christin was born and grew up in Eldoret. On January 17, 2008 during the post election violence her uncle paid for bus fare for her to leave Eldoret. Christin was from the wrong tribe to be in Eldoret. Her man was of the local tribe she was not and had to flee for the safety of herself and their six children.

I asked her what the food we were distributing meant to her. She said “It is my life”. In the morning Christin and her children eat porridge for breakfast. It is a common breakfast. The corn is ground into flour. To have the corn ground into flour they exchange 4.4 pounds of the 110 pound bag for the whole bag to be ground.

For breakfast the flour is boiled and served in a very thin soup that is called porridge. They do not normally have a noon meal, at night they eat their main meal of corn flour which looks like potatoes along with some split peas.

The food we provide lasts about two weeks. When they run out of food Christin uses a machete to cut wood and sell the wood to make money to buy food.

The school age children are fed a noon meal of boiled whole corn and beans.




Beneficiary Diets and Eating Habits:

The corn, split peas and oil that we distribute make up only a 50% ration. That sounds very tough and cruel but there is some hard logic behind the decision making. We do not want the beneficiaries to become dependent on the donated food. I’ve talked to numerous beneficiaries patiently standing in line waiting their turn to receive their ration. The answers to questions I asked were very consistent. The food we distribute lasts about two weeks, even when eating only a light breakfast and no noon meal. Two thirds of the people are under age 18 they are children.

Based on the analysis and summary of over 10,000 surveys we have a picture what the beneficiaries are eating.

Before we started providing food the people were eating less than 1.5 meals per day. After distributions people are eating an average of 2.3 meals per day.

In addition to the corn split peas and vegetable oil people are also eating;
- 90% potatoes, yams, or other root vegetables
- 60% other vegetables
- 50% add salt to their food
- 35% sugar or honey
- 30% some form of dairy product, probably from the local goats

These other foods in their diets come from performing casual when they can find it or cutting and selling wood, making and selling charcoal, setting up little shops where they buy food at stores and sell it to their fellow beneficiaries.

To expand their diets people also barter the corn, peas or oil in exchange for the local potatoes, vegetables and other foods when they are in season. An example one pound of corn can be exchanged for three pounds of potatoes or yams.

Those of us who are of Dutch background sometimes take pride in our penny pinching frugal ways. We could learn from the Turkana how to really make a penny go a long way.


Quotable Quote:

Pastor Samuel Meli is the pastor of two churches; Katilu and Kalimorok. He is everywhere helping us during distributions. His monthly salary is $75.00.

I asked what he saw as the main role of IRMs (International Relief Managers, white) at the distributions. His answer was insightful, he said:

“Just being at the distributions. When representatives of the donor are at the distribution, people believe it will be done fairly. When donor representatives are not present people believe there is corruption.”

Often in the news we see trucks from donor organizations going into refugee camps and just throwing bags out to masses of people who are scrambling over each other to fight for a bag of grain. The strongest and toughest run away with the food. This does not happen at distributions from CGFB or CRWRC.

Another example is of aid organizations going into camps with lots of media people with cameras taking pictures while some people receive 5 pounds of food. Then the media circus is over and everyone leaves. Again this is not what happens with our distributions. We can be thankful to God for blessing our work and aligning us with talented local people who provide such necessary guidance and leadership.