Samburu
“Doesn’t that sound like a Turkana story from 8 years ago?”
When Andrew Brown asked me that question, he had my undivided attention.
When CRF started helping in Turkana, Kenya, eight years ago, it was the worst place on earth. That’s why we started helping. It’s still a really tough place. But because CRF has brought water there through your generosity, it is a significantly better place.
Now, only an hour drive from Turkana, there is a place called “Samburu” where you hear stories like we first heard about in Turkana.
What’s it like? The Nation, Kenya’s largest newspaper, recently described Samburu in this way…
There is nothing to eat or drink. Nothing. Not a single drop of water to save the mother and her child. The mother was with a group of people traveling the rocky, hilly terrain in search of food and water. They had gone days without food and water. “In all my years on earth, I’ve never seen anything as bad as this,” Samwel Silale, a village administrator, said.
Here, residents live in unsanitary conditions without water. It takes them more than six hours to bring home salty water, transporting it on their backs. “We have not received any aid. I do not need anything more than food for my children, who are starving to death,” a desperate mother said.
The national government announced that about three million people in northern Kenya were at risk of starvation due to droughts, ethnic clashes, and locust invasions.
CRF recently planted four churches in Samburu, and they were so excited to hear the gospel. But they need water.
One of CRF’s rigs in Kenya has been devoting itself to drilling wells in Turkana. We will continue to do so, but we are also going to be drilling wells in Samburu. When you hear the cries, you have to move toward them. We know our donors will help in this area just as you have helped and will continue to help in Turkana.
