25 September 2009 UPDATE: Thanks to your donations, we have just had our first Food Distribution. Click Here to see your money in action! 18 October 2009 UPDATE:Our second food distribution was a huge success with 200 more families supplied with enough food to feed their children hopefully until crops are again being harvested. But how long will this drought last?
 

Without wonderful people like you all this would not have been possible and that's why we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
 

Am also happy to report that we were able to get the children of Karicheni primary School  supply of over a month in lunch time meals.

This has been successful due to all your generosity from our very many well-wishers.

Am also happy to report that they have been having a few rains here and there. The good report I get now is that grass has once again re-grown on the once bare lands transforming it into this green beautiful place it once was.

This is what we are fighting: Kids are starving. This is the outcome of so many starving children in Kenya; as you can see from the look of this nine year old boy.

The consequences of Kenya’s drought, which
is affecting 10 million people, is easy to see
in the faces of the children and the old.

Severely malnourished three-year-old Moussa
Abdi Hassan sits alongside another child.

The consequences of Kenya’s drought, which
is affecting 10 million people, is easy to see
in the faces of the children and the old.

A Maasai walks past a carcass of a young
zebra that succumbed to draught.

Kenyan MPs living lavishly while
citizens starve to death.

My name is Liz Schaffer and I am originally from Kenya, I am married to Todd Schaffer who is an American. We live in Orlando, Florida, with our 4-year old daughter, and my sister. Most of my family live in Kenya where they split their time between Nairobi (capital of Kenya), and our farm which is based in Kieni East constituency - Central Province.

This is not a story about me or my family, we are fine. It's more about the condition of the neighboring farms and the people in the area and what they are going through. My family is telling me about the villagers' struggles to hang on to life until the rains come.

Due to the lack of rainfall in Kenya for over a one-year period, many rivers have completely dried and livestock have died due to the drought. As a result, more than half the Kenyan population who are peasant farmers, and who rely on the rains, are starving. Many have died, mostly children and the elderly people.

One of the hardest hit areas is the Kieni Constituency which is a remote area where my parents own a farm. They have been able to give me first-hand information of the suffering the people are going through. And though I understand it is impossible to feed all the people in this area, the few that we can help makes a really big difference.

As a result of the drought its been reported that in desperation, some people are resorting to eating Polard - an animal feed - to keep their families alive. Also, my niece who lives on our farm, Edith Wamuyu, who is a kindergarten teacher in the Kieni area, told me that the few "lucky" children who can afford a packed lunch to bring to school, pack some meat from a little wild animal in the deer family that their parents would have hunted. Due to the drought conditions these little animals come out of the forests to look for food in the farms only to find the hungry villagers waiting for them.

A woman prepares chapati bread from Polard, an animal feed, August 16,2009 in Nyeri in Central Kenya. The locals are using the feeds since they cannot afford maize or wheat flour as famine continues. Photo/2009 JOSEPH KANYI  

While Kenyans are facing starvation, all our politicians can do is heighten their blame games as the situation deteriorates.

When the post election violence erupted early last year, the country’s breadbasket was serious affected since most farmers were displaced from their farms. Most of these farmers are still suffering in the camps where they have been living since then, and God knows when their predicament will be fixed.

So, you can see that we have something like a perfect storm of suffering - the drought, the ineffectiveness of the government to react, and farmers displaced by violence not able to replenish the stockpiles of food that are the reserves of the country.

It is for this reason that I am doing all I can to get this news out to you, and the world - and after seeing this, asking for your help.

I am your emissary, your envoy - to help deliver food and supplies to some of these areas. Todd and I, and my parents, have been supporting this area for a few months now on our own - but conditions continue to degrade and we are at a point where we need to 'call in the troops' - that's you.

Also, my sister-in-law Jill Schaffer has been invaluable in helping me reach out to more people, and coming up with some great ideas on how to go about this, and for that I am deeply grateful to her for all the work and time she is putting in this. 

How you can help - Read: A Letter to Friends  And:

You do not have to be a member, or sign-up to use PayPal.

100% of you donation will go to feeding the hungry in the Kieni area of central Provence, Kenya.

I will post the progress of our food drive once it happens,

Thank you all for your support and kindness.