Aid worker Isacko Jirma is helping people to rebuild their lives after the terrible East Africa drought in 2017.
“I had to come back – this is something I felt strongly. In my heart. I have a passion for my work," Isacko says. "I am a Borana. I define myself within this problem. I can see myself in this situation and I have seen my family in this situation. I am in a position to deal with it.
“I have lived through this. My family has lived through this. I would not be here without the Catholic Church. I came back here to give something back.”
Thanks to people like Isacko with local knowledge, CAFOD is one of the very few organisations working with people on the fringes of society.
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We are there to help no matter what
The difficulty for people in this region in northern Kenya and for hard-to-reach communities around the world like them is – when the entire community is suffering, who will be there to help?
The UN estimates there are 40 million people around the world right now who are nomads – people who move from one place to another. But it’s vulnerable groups like these who struggle most when disasters such as drought strike.
The crisis that left over 13 million people without enough good food to eat may be over according to our TV screens. But for all the people here waiting, including Kushi Huka, 30, a single mum, it’s still very real.
“I could beg for food or starve,” she says. “Without you, I don’t know what would have happened. Maybe we would be dead.”
We help people to build back their lives, better
Kushi and her neighbours still need help because they lost so much during the crisis. She shows me a 20 ft circular enclosure built near her home. “This is where my animals used to be,” Kushi says. It’s empty now. Every animal she had perished during the drought.
Kushi has been supported with food vouchers to keep her family fed, but she is soon going to be enrolled on a project to help her and some of the most vulnerable people in her community to grow food in this extreme environment.
We are part of an extensive global Church network
CAFOD is part of an extensive global Catholic Church network which means we can help some of the poorest, most vulnerable people – of all faiths and none – in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
We save and change the lives of women, men and children who may live in remote locations, be stuck in conflict or be from a persecuted community.
Marsabit County is about a 12-hour drive during the dry season from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Once you arrive in Marsabit, drive through town and onto a road for another hour. Turn off into the bush, continue over sand and through rocks towards the horizon for another hour-and-a-half.
The nomadic Borana and Rendille live here alongside the Gabbra and Turkana.
Meet Isacko
Isacko is an aid worker for our Church network in this difficult-to-reach part of Kenya.
He is in Burgabo helping people to rebuild their lives after the terrible East Africa drought in 2017. Today, he’s helping to give out food vouchers, but he’s been working across the region, keeping people alive who were on the brink.
When he was younger, Isacko left the area to study and work with aid organisations in other parts of the country, but he realised his calling.
“"I can see myself in this situation and I have seen my family in this situation."”