During Lent, CAFOD is inviting you to join Lokho on her journey of survival – of finding hope through devasting drought.
“One day, two of them died,” Lokho tells us of her goats. “A day after that, another. A week later, another three. Now I have zero livestock.”
At just 28-years-old, Lokho is a survivor of a devastating drought. There was no grass for her goats to eat, just miles of dry, cracked earth. The goats collapsed and died from dehydration.
With her animals gone, Lokho was left with no way to support her young family. She had no safety net to fall back on.
40 MONTHS WITHOUT RAIN
In northern Kenya, the dry seasons are increasingly extreme. Lokho’s community survived 40 months without rain – 40 months of scorching sun.
Her neighbours shared all they had. Lokho tells us: “My good neighbours have the habit, the tendency, of helping one another – and that is how they can survive.”
Finally, thankfully, the rains came. But Lokho’s community had already lost almost everything. They needed a new way to get food. They needed a plan so that when the next drought hit, they would not be left with nothing.
SIMPLE IMPACTFUL SOLUTIONS
Lokho chats as she pushes a wheelbarrow full of water tubs. Her baby sleeps peacefully on her back. She strides toward the community vegetable farm, surrounded by her neighbours. Here, working side by side with local experts, they’ve begun to sow the seeds of their future.
“They entirely depended on livestock for life,” explains Wakera, who works with Lokho’s community. “Now we have introduced poultry and kitchen gardening.”
Local experts like Wakera are teaching Lokho and her neighbours techniques for growing vegetables in the arid climate. Crucially, together, they’ve built innovative shade nets which protect young plants from the sun.
“They provided us with that green net there,” says Lokho, pointing to a large net that covers her whole vegetable patch. “The sunlight still gets to the plant, but it’s not as destructive as before.”
These nets act as an ‘anti-greenhouse’ – they keep the burning sun off the plants whilst still allowing every drop of precious rain through.
BUILDING A BETTER WORLD FOR ALL
Arms full of vegetables, Lokho walks back to her home. Later, she will sell the produce in her small shop and split the money between her neighbours.
“These savings will help us when we go through a time of emergency,” says Lokho, “At a time when there’s a food crisis, we can purchase food to save people. I feel like I’m now safe and secure.”
Lokho’s eyes turn to her children playing in the yard.
“The littlest one was born towards the end of the long drought,” she says. “It makes me smile now to see her walking about. I feel great pride.”
Lokho has hope for her family’s future. She tells us: “I turn to God through prayer. I pray for a better life in which to raise my children.”
A BETTER WORLD NEEDS ALL OF US. A BETTER WORLD NEEDS YOU.
Help families around the world survive emergency conditions and build a better future.
Please donate this Lent
Give online at cafod.org.uk
or call 0303 303 3030
or send a cheque to: Freepost CAFOD (no address or stamp needed)
5 ways your parish can get involved this Lent
1. Hold a Fast Day collection – Hand out CAFOD’s green Fast Day envelopes as people come into church and share CAFOD’s Family Fast Day with your parish by putting up CAFOD’s Lent poster and reading their short talk at Mass. You’ll be amazed by the difference your parish can make!
2. Big Lent Walk – As a parish or school, on your own or with friends, sign up to take part in the Big Lent Walk and walk 200km in 40 days to help fight global poverty.
3. Simple parish lunch – Come together as a parish community to share a simple lunch and raise vital funds for communities living in poverty around the world. Find recipes for simple soups, stews and curries for your parish lunch.
4. Make a Jubilee pledge – Share CAFOD’s newsletter announcement and invite parishioners to make a monthly donation to share hope with communities around the world in the Year of Jubilee.
5. Pray with us – sign up to receive CAFOD’s weekly Gospel reflections for ways to give, act and pray with us this Lent.