Due to the drought in Kenya, students are hungry and many are no longer going to school. Second in a series of reports.
The outdoor courtyard of Helmer Memorial Girls’ School in North Horr, northern Kenya, is frozen in the sun. Suddenly, a clamor is set in motion. A tide of young girls in uniform invades the sand: it’s time for lunch. Those who are boarders crowd in a line in front of a large cauldron to receive a bowl of beans mixed with corn. But, for many of those who come home for lunch, water will be their only meal.
The girls sit in the shade, and some share their meal with friends who have nothing to eat. Arbe Jarso, 16, walks a little further with other classmates to fill his small yellow plastic container with water. She will then travel with a neighbor the few kilometers that separate her from her hut.
“I didn’t cook because there is no food. They will go back to school without eating,” her grandmother, Kame Jarso, told Duty. Some days they don’t eat at all, even in the evening.
Several years ago, the small community dismantled and transported dozens of kilometers of their houses made of wood, fabric and straw to install them on the outskirts of North Horr, in the county of Marsabit. Arbe started her first grade at Helmer Memorial School late because of her family’s nomadic lifestyle. She is now at level 8, but her path is suddenly more uncertain.
“It’s hard to concentrate. Because of hunger, it’s difficult to keep the concentration, ”slips the young girl.
The school of nearly 450 students welcomes young people from primary and lower secondary education almost exclusively from families of pastoralists. The extreme drought in Kenya is decimating their herds, which are their only source of income, and many can no longer afford to eat.
In the morning, the students are more focused and respond with one voice to their teacher’s questions. However, they did not have lunch. In the afternoon, it becomes almost impossible to teach them the subject.
“They have no energy, many are staring into space,” reports Habiba Boru, 40, who teaches the second year of primary school. They are often absent in the afternoon, claiming that they are sick. But, in fact, they are hungry and too weak to come back. »
Due to absences and lack of attention, exam results suffer. “It has a serious impact on their school performance, they have seriously decreased, confirms the director of the Helmer Memorial school, Steven Ali Elema. It is difficult to keep the attention of a child who is dozing in class because he is hungry. »
Not enough money to go to school
“My grades have gone down,” said Gumato Marko, 15, who lives with his aunt. It’s hard to study and concentrate. She’s not used to studying on an empty stomach. “Before, we had two or three meals a day,” she says. The one who has never lived with her parents dreams of becoming a doctor. First to help his family, and then to “extend his kindness to the rest of the world”.
For her aunt, who did not go to school when she was younger, it is essential that the girl can succeed. “My family never believed in the importance of school,” she says. But that has changed. »
We talk to him in the early morning, when his niece is about to walk to school without having swallowed anything. Her son, who is enrolled in secondary school, remains seated on a blanket on the sand outside their terracotta house. He doesn’t wear a uniform.
“The government can fund his school fees, but I don’t have the money for school uniforms and materials,” says his mother. I’ve already asked enough of my neighbors, I don’t want to do it again. She sometimes tries to convince the teacher to take her son to class, even though he only has an old school uniform.
As of February 15, Kenya’s Minister of Education, Ezekiel Machogu, reported in the media that 200,000 junior high school students have not reported to school since the start of the school year.
Uniforms are mandatory in schools across the country, but many ranching families told theDuty no longer have the means to pay it because of the drought.
The families of Arbe and Gumato regularly request food from their neighbors and surrounding businesses. Food distributions are also organized by the Marsabit County Government in several towns. But there are more families to feed than food available. And with a 12.5-kilogram bag of rice and half a liter of oil per household, that’s not enough, say North Horr residents with whom The duty discussed on the sidelines of a distribution under the beating sun.
“It only lasts us two days,” says Hawo Quri Boku, 45, who has nine children. And I have to share with my neighbors when they ask me. And, like many others, she has two children who need to go to high school. But, for lack of uniform, they stay at home.
With Safi Godana
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty .