Protecting children through hunger and drought

You’ve helped deliver lifesaving healthcare where it’s needed most

In northern Turkana, the drought has stripped the land bare. The goats Lydia’s family once relied on are now too thin to sell, and too weak to give milk. Most days, Lydia can only find enough maize for one meal.

“If we find food, we eat, if we don’t, we don’t eat,” she says. “Sometimes that means I don’t get anything to eat.”

When her children go for days without food, Lydia watches them become quiet and still, without the energy to play.

“The drought has impacted our family because children are going for days without food,” she says. “And you can see your children are becoming malnourished.”

But thanks to support from people like you, Lydia is no longer facing this crisis alone.

A birth in the middle of an emergency

Lydia holds her newborn baby Elimlim^* (2 weeks) in Turkana, Kenya.

When Lydia was pregnant with her baby boy, Elimlim^*, the nearest health facility felt impossibly far away. Outreach clinics that once visited her village had stopped due to funding cuts.

“I was experiencing a lot of pain during the pregnancy,” she says. “I thought it was strange, so I wanted to go to the hospital to give birth.”

With her husband away herding livestock, she began making and selling charcoal, saving every small amount she could. When the time came, she used that money to pay for a motorbike to get her to the clinic, ensuring a safe delivery for herself and her baby.

After the birth, Lydia returned home to face the same challenge as before - keeping her children fed and healthy, with almost no services nearby.

Your support helped bring healthcare back to her community

Lydia speaks with Alice from the Emergency Health Unit in Turkana. The health workers at the outreach site checked Elimlim* and gave him polio vaccine and BCG vaccine, which protects against tuberculosis. 

Thanks to regular supporters like you, Save the Children set up an outreach clinic closer for Lydia to reach. It is one of more than 20 emergency clinics now bringing essential healthcare to families cut off by drought, distance and funding cuts.

When Lydia brought newborn Elimlim* to the clinic:

• He received polio and BCG (tuberculosis) vaccinations
• His growth and health were checked
• Lydia received postnatal support
• Her daughter, Ayanae, was screened for malnutrition
• Health workers reassured her that her children were safe for now.

“Today the baby received the vaccinations for polio and BCG [tuberculosis],” Lydia says. “After you deliver, you must take the baby for vaccination because it’s important for their immune system.”

These services are only possible because of supporters like you.

Real impact in the hardest hit communities

Save the Children staff unpack and set up an outreach clinic in Turkana, Kenya. Endless droughts and climate shocks have left millions of children and adults in Kenya facing acute food shortages, with hundreds of thousands of children aged 6-59 months requiring treatment for acute malnutrition. 

Climate shocks have pushed families in Turkana to breaking point. At the same time, cuts to global aid funding have left many communities without any health services at all.

Because of your ongoing support:

• Outreach clinics are operating where no services remain
• Children are being screened and treated for malnutrition
• Babies like Elimlim* are receiving lifesaving vaccinations
• Mothers are getting antenatal and postnatal care
• Sick children are being treated before illnesses become deadly.

In just two months, Save the Children screened thousands of children for malnutrition in Turkana , and your support helped make that possible.

You are helping keep clinics open, staff trained, and lifesaving supplies available in the hardest to reach places.

“You can see there’s no grass for the goats because of the drought.”

Lydia describes the land around her home as empty and exhausted. With each failed season, families like hers are pushed deeper into hunger.
And yet, even in these conditions, she now has a lifeline - because of you.

“There are no problems at the clinic,” she says. “Everything is going well.”

Thank you for protecting children like Elimlim.

You are helping children grow up healthy and safe — even in the most difficult circumstances.

Thank you. 

*Names changed to protect identities.

Photo: Sacha Myers / Save the Children.