As Christmas approaches…
… single mother, Anastacia should be looking forward to cooking chapati and green grams for her children. But this year, for the first time, that won’t happen. Climate change has destroyed any predictability of rainfall in her village.
Parts of Kenya have been in various stages of drought since as far back as 2014 and this year has been particularly bad for Anastacia’s region. The added burden of the Covid-19 pandemic has sent food prices soaring and is pushing Anastacia’s family to the edge of survival. They are among the 2 million Kenyans facing famine levels of hunger due to food and water shortages.
Christmas promise
December in Kenya typically coincides with the arrival of rain. It’s an exciting moment that doesn’t just represent the start of the wet season but the promise of a good harvest and food for the year ahead. Going into Christmas, everyone breathes a sigh of relief knowing they can celebrate the holidays.
Farmer and single mother, Anastacia, remembers those days well. “When there was rain, Christmas was good because I would cook my children a good meal,” she says. “They love chapati and green grams.”
But now, her 12-year-old daughter, Nzilani says, "When I come home from school, I eat some boiled maize. And I only eat once, sometimes twice, a day."