Hunger in Turkana, Kenya
It is the greatest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II warns Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, just back from a tour of East Africa and Yemen. If the world stands by, he says, “people will simply starve to death.”
The numbers are chilling. “Right now we have 850,000 malnourished children in East Africa,” says Christopher Hoffman, who directs World Vision’s humanitarian emergency affairs from Nairobi, Kenya. "Without immediate action, between 30 and 50 per cent of these children will die.”
It’s easy to get flummoxed by numbers, especially numbers this big. But behind every number is a face—the face of a child, a mom, a dad, a grandma. Their eyes swim with the competing emotions of sorrow and fear. Sorrow over lost parents and favorite animals, now carcasses in the sand. Fear that they may be the next to die.
The people of Turkana, Kenya represent the 25 million people suffering from conflict and drought across East Africa.
This is their story.
Photos ©World Vision/Jon Warren
Join churches worldwide responding to this crisis through the Global Day of Prayer to End Famine, a broad coalition of more than 100 faith-based organisations representing more than 1 billion Christians.