KENYA – For several days, Rasianae tucked all four of her children into bed at night without any food. She didn’t have a choice. All the food she had was gone. She and her family were not just facing food insecurity, they were starving.
“They are young and don’t really understand why you can’t give them food,” said Rasianae. “It is a very painful thing seeing your children suffering like that.”
Getting Food Feels Like A Miracle In Parched Kenya
Her children became so weak, they could barely walk. Desperate, Rasianae begged for food from her neighbors, but they were facing the same situation. “Everyone is suffering and struggling,” she said. “There is nothing left for anyone.”
Last spring, the rains that so many people expected throughout Kenya never came. The ground became parched; the wells, dry. Crops and grass quickly dried up. By July, the nation had come face to face with severe drought. Like Rasianae, many Kenyans began living a nightmare.
“It was painful waking up every morning hoping to see signs of rain, only to wake up to the sight of my animals dying,” said Rasianae. When she took them out to graze, they couldn’t find anything to eat.
Like so many people in Kenya, Rasianae has long relied on crops and animals to provide food and income for her family. With both gone, she had no money to purchase food when her own supply ran dry. She tried to find work at a local shopping center, but very little was available.
Desperate, she sold what remained of her animals in order to feed her family. “The money I got from selling the goats was barely anything, and in no time, it was all gone,” she said. “Now we had no animals and no food, either.”
Her Children Went To Bed Hungry
The worst was watching her children suffer. Many nights, she simply had to send them to bed hungry. Once when she did find food to cook for her children, it made them very sick because they hadn’t eaten in so long. “All the food I had managed to get—and now it didn’t even help them,” Rasianae said, heartbroken. “That was such a loss!”
When we learned about the critical situation so many of our brothers and sisters were facing in Kenya, our Operation Blessing partners stepped in to fill the gap. Your love and compassion sent Rasianae and the families in some of the worst-hit communities a month’s supply of food to get them through the difficult days of the drought.
“Before you came here and brought us the food, we had gone three days without,” said Rasianae. “I thank God because this is a miracle.”
Because you reached out to them, Rasianae’s children were able to eat and go to bed with their bellies filled. “I feel happy today when I see my children eating the food that you have brought us. May God indeed bless you!” And you continued reaching out to these villages in the months that followed.
Thank you for your heart to bless people around the world! When food feels like a miracle to families like Rasianae’s, it’s arrival means that you made a difference!
