A youth organization has been distributing relief food to famine-stricken families in Kilifi and Tana River counties as drought continues to bite in the counties.
Tawfiq Muslim Youth Organization in partnership with Muslime Helfen is also conducting medical outreach programmes targeting malnourished children and expectant mothers.
Speaking on phone with KNA Ahmed Hadi, CEO of Tawfiq hospital said, “We started this programme in 1979, this year alone the numbers of families that have benefitted in both Kilifi and Tana River Counties are 2,800 and 10,000 respectively’’.
“We thank God that we have made it possible for the affected families to put food on their tables,” he said.
Impassable roads in the hard-to-reach areas of Kilifi and Tana River are a hindrance to the organization’s efforts to reach vulnerable families.
“The main challenges we usually face in both counties is poor roads to reach those affected families in their villages, other challenges include not enough food to cover many areas and scarcity of resources,” said the CEO.
Tawfiq hospital has conducted medical outreaches in villages that have been affected by drought. “Many children that were seen by our doctors were malnourished. This year alone we did many medical outreach programmes in both Kilifi and Tana-River counties. 3000 people benefited from this programme,’’ said Tawfiq hospital CEO.
He appealed to well-wishers to unite and find a long-term solution for the drought problem which regularly affects the two counties.
According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), Drought Early Warning for August 2022 Tana River is in an alarm-worsening drought phase.
“There was a higher proportion of households with poor food consumption scores in pastoral livelihood zones (70.5 per cent) and mixed farming livelihood zones (50 per cent) and lowest in marginal mixed livelihood (5.6 per cent.
This is attributed to high food prices, lower purchasing power, lower access to a wide range of food groups, below average milk consumption, and crop failure due to poor performance of the rains,” reads the NDMA August bulletin.
Tawfiq Muslim Youth Organization was registered in the year 1979 with the mission of assisting the community in famine and disaster relief, acquiring efficient and affordable health services, and fulfilling its educational and spiritual obligations.
Tawfiq Hospital is a project of the Tawfiq Muslim Youth Organization; Established in the year 1992 with aim of providing quality and patient-focused health care to all without discrimination, directly or through partnerships, and resting the cure to Allah as stated in their Motto.
By Sadik Hassan
