Drought has reduced available pasture for livestock herds in eastern Senegal. Photo by Aliou Bassoum/Oxfam America.

Second of two posts by guest blogger Aliou Bassoum, Oxfam America’s regional communications officer in Dakar, Senegal.

It takes a little more than an hour on a red dirt road through forests and millet fields to find the village of Balkissima, population 162. We can still see a few stalks in the fields, left over from the harvest last fall here in the region of Kolda. According to an assessment by the World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization in November, about 138,800 people in Kolda are at high risk of food insecurity.

Some of them are here. They are mostly farmers and herders in Balkissima, a small village with a few mud-walled houses. Around one of them, the home of the chief, stand a few cows. This area is well known for raising livestock.

The food crisis here in southern Senegal is not just hitting people. The livestock are also suffering, and becoming quite skinny, almost puny in size. The village chief, Amadou Korka Balde, says it is due to lack of pasture in the area, and the poor quality of what grass is there during the dry winter months.

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Berthe Souré says she grew only 400 kg of rice in her last crop, about one tenth her normal yield. Photo by Aliou Bassoum/Oxfam America.

First of two posts by Oxfam’s regional communication officer in Senegal, Aliou Bassoum.

This year there is another food crisis knocking at the door of the Sahel, and it is threatening about 850,000 people in Senegal. Many of them live in Kolda, southern Senegal, and in Kedougou in the east, about 12 hours from Dakar by car.

I’ve just visited these areas over the last few weeks with the humanitarian team planning our response, and in each of the villages we heard a similar story: The last harvest was not good, and people are hungry. Many agricultural communities experience a hungry period while their crops are in the ground and they finish eating the food harvested from the previous year. But this year the lean season is happening four or five months earlier than normal.

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“It’s thanks to the rain that the animals graze; it’s thanks to the rain that we have food,” says Koubra Hamid, who lives with her family in Bahr el Ghazal, Chad. But she is worried.

“This year, it has not rained much, so the pastures are not good enough,” says herder Etta Brahim Senussi. “When an animal dies, it really hurts.” Photo by Andy Hall/Oxfam.

The rains haven’t come. Not enough, and not at the right times. Across the Sahel region of Africa, poor harvests, erratic and inadequate rainfall, and rising food prices are harbingers of what many predict will be a severe food crisis. Already the poorest families are struggling with hunger, and their animals are visibly weakening.

Oxfam is supporting animal feeding and health care to enable farmers and herders to weather the lean season. Photo by Andy Hall/Oxfam.

A top priority now is to prevent farmers and pastoralists from losing their cows, goats, sheep, and camels – and with them their sources of both food and income. Oxfam’s emergency programs include providing livestock with improved water sources, fodder to supplement the dwindling pasture, and vaccinations to counteract the damage drought and hunger could do to their health. (View “ Taha vaccinates 1,000 goats per day.”)

“We’re tired and frustrated,” says Hamid. “But there are also moments when we laugh with our children.”

Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou has supported Oxfam’s work for more than five years.

In the last few years I‘ve had the privilege of taking part in many incredible campaigns led by some of the most inspiring people and organizations. Their fight continues, and the cause is still in need of your help. I’ve spoken about this before, urging you to assist in various crises taking place around the world. Today is no different. Those living in hunger are still living in desperation and their numbers are growing every day.

Oxfam Ambassador Djimon Hounsou and Kenyan Ambassador Elkanah Odembo spoke at the launch of Oxfam America's GROW campaign in June. GROW is a campaign focused on fixing the broken food system. Photo by Leigh Vogel for Getty Images.

Sadly there are still those that are not aware of the dire need that East Africa is in right now. In an area of the world already ravaged by civil war, the innocent people there are now displaced by one of the worst droughts the region has ever experienced. To some this problem is a world away and is easy to ignore, but I implore you to pay attention. Help us spread the message and raise aid for those that need it the most. Read the rest of this entry »

Tede Lokapelo holds a day's worth of food. Photo by Rankin

A severe food crisis and drought is now affecting millions of people in East Africa. Among the areas hit hardest is northern Kenya’s Turkana region, where many people are herders who depend on their animals—camels, cows, goats, and sheep—for both food and income.

In March 2011, the photographer Rankin visited Turkana to capture photos and stories of people affected by the ongoing crisis. In the excerpt below, Tede Lokapelo, 85, talks about the dramatic changes he has witnessed in his lifetime.

“We are poor because the season is always dry. Everything dies, every day, every day, every day. For me the world has changed for the worse. We are living with a lot of uncertainties—no water, no food.

“It used to rain even when the grass was still green. It was never dry like this. Now maybe it rains for a few minutes or a few hours, but the earth is too dry nothing can be absorbed. This kind of drizzly rain is useless. If you look at the ground it is not even wet. You can tell whether the rain will be good or bad by looking at those mountains. You see that kind of smoke or fog? That is a symbol of the dry season. That fog needs to clear before the big rain clouds can come, then the skies can open and it will rain like it used to for days. It used to rain so that floods and rivers appear. But that will not happen until that fog disappears.

“In this community there are people called rain makers. In the past, when we had a prolonged drought, all the men would go and see the rain maker. We would sit under a special tree in the mountains and pray for rain. But God seems to have become too far away, and these traditions don’t work anymore.

“Back then we had everything, even wild animals were everywhere. There were antelopes, ostriches, wild cats, even lions, elephants, buffalo, leopards, everything. The last time I saw a lion it was 1971. By 1971 we could not see any animals here. The antelope remained around for a while but by 1988 the antelopes also started dying. The wild animals found no grass here, just dust. There was no shade for them. They began slowly dying of hunger. Those that could walk began walking away. They went to places where they could find shade and water.

“I miss those animals very much. The environment is not complete without them.

“ [Today] I only have seven goats left. I used to have 200. … This drought has taught me a lesson. I have learned that it is too difficult to keep animals. Our strong dependence on livestock, our old way of life, has completely gone.”

Oxfam aims to reach 3 million people–1.3 million in Kenya, 700,000 in Ethiopia, and 500,000 in Somalia—with a variety of support, including food aid, clean water, and veterinary care for animals. We are drilling and repairing wells and distributing fuel vouchers to ensure that pumps on the wells can keep operating—even if people have no money. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Already the largest in the world with more than 360,000 people, the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya continues to swell with Somalis fleeing famine. Across East Africa, especially in northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia, and south central Somalia, a drought and food crisis is affecting 12 million people.

Following are some of the impressions of Oxfam’s JJ Singano who is helping to provide water and sanitation services in Dadaab—and worrying about what the future will hold for people seeking safety there.

Oxfam installs a water tank in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

 More and more people are arriving every day. They come tired and hungry, half naked, and without food and water. They walk all the way from Somalia – sometimes for 10 days, sometimes even for 30 days – and they arrive with nothing. It’s a very difficult journey. Thousands make it, but they say that others die on the way. Children get attacked by hyenas, while others die from starvation as they walk in the heat and the desert. Bandits steal from them, especially the women and children, and men are often not allowed to cross the border. Read the rest of this entry »

John Abdulla is a new media specialist at Oxfam America.

Ever wish you could just tweet the president that burning question about the state of our economy? Today at 2 p.m. EST is your chance; the White House will hold its first Twitter Town Hall. You can tweet your questions on the economy and jobs for President Obama by using the hashtag #AskObama and he will answer selected questions live via webcast at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

This is a great opportunity to directly ask the president how fighting global hunger, investing in resilience to climate change, and restoring our Gulf Coast can help create new jobs and improve our economy. Here are some suggested tweets that you can simply copy and paste into twitter or adapt as you wish:

• What investments would you support in food security and climate resilience to create millions of jobs and fight #hunger? #AskObama
• Why aren’t we investing in #ClimateChange resiliency to protect US businesses, deliver new consumers & create jobs here at home? #AskObama
• Do you agree that inclusive growth overseas helps America’s economic future by increasing markets for American goods? #AskObama
• Investing in Gulf Coast restoration will help the ecology and economy of the region recover. Are you on board? #AskObama

You can also visit us on Twitter and retweet your favorite question for the President!

To reach their fields, farmers must cross a seasonal stream in southern Ethiopia. Photo by Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America

We had a lot of rain here in the Boston area this spring. Endless rain, it felt like. Would it ever stop?

I’m embarrassed now to have whined about it when I think what some steady rain could do for people in the Horn of Africa. Many of them are desperate for it.

The late 2010 rainy season failed completely in many parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. And in some districts of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, the March through May rains have been only about 10 percent of average. For herders and farmers who depend on every drop, the consequences could be severe: Already there are reports of hundreds of thousands of animals having died.

Climate change is leading to longer, hotter dry periods, shorter growing seasons, and unpredictable rainfall patterns—all of which make it harder for farmers, both experienced and just learning, to decide when to sow and cultivate their crops. Read the rest of this entry »

Galgalo Boru is a herder who also depends in rain-fed fields to feed his family. Photo by Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America

It’s been years since the grasses of Deed Liben grew tall, ensuring a safe haven for wildlife and abundant nutrition for the herds of cattle and goats that families in the Guji zone of southern Ethiopia depend on for food and income. In a handful of places, preservation efforts have restored some of this renowned pastureland, but for many people, including Galgalo Boru, making a living by herding alone is no longer an option here.

Late one afternoon, as sheets of rain and sunshine washed the plain, he sat by the side of the road, a few cows behind him munching shoots of green the rain had coaxed from the ground. He was alone and contemplating the five hectares of wheat and haricot beans he had planted recently on the far side of the road. Some of it had sprouted—slivers of possibility pushing through the red earth—but so much depends on what comes next: sun that scorches or clouds that cool and bring rain?

Boru could only hope.

“I am a pastoralist,” he said. “But I lost many animals and now I am farming. Now, I don’t have animals except for a pair of oxen and a donkey.”

The rain came late to this region, and the dry days, seemingly endless, put severe stress on families and their animals. In the last month alone eight of Boru’s precious herd died, including six lactating cows and an ox. Weak and hungry from drought, most of them collapsed in the cold rain.

The pattern is hardly new—though climate change may be exacerbating it—and it’s one of the realities of this hardscrabble region that is pushing herding families to find new ways of making a living. Some are now turning to farming; some, like Boru, have long combined the cultivation of small plots with the care of livestock. With rain so unpredictable, however, there is an ongoing debate about the wisdom of encouraging agriculture here, and across the sweep of southern Ethiopia’s pasturelands. Read the rest of this entry »

We have good news to report.

Governments made significant progress at the international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico last week when they agreed to establish a global climate fund. While falling short of the emissions cuts needed, the negotiators took critical steps toward achieving real emissions reductions.

The deal also moves the world closer to a global agreement that will help direct resources towards the millions of poor people who already struggle to survive the effects of climate change. Read the rest of this entry »