JULY 2023

Even if the wind blows against us, the mighty work goes on: you can contribute a stanza

Lodung'okwe, 2023. As if we were in the oven about to be charred to death, people cry out for rain. The water has to be scooped out of the sand drop by drop and this task involves such an effort that, by the evening, the women who have scooped the sgu and carried it on their backs are exhausted and breathless for anything else. Yesterday, Ana Lenkuro, who has three daughters, all students, arrived tired from herding to ask for 20 litres of water that she could not even carry. In these difficult times, faith increases for those who make the effort. The women have learned to value the work of each day. There are no goats for sacrifice, debts are not repaid, and despite the leniency of the moneylenders, the one who has been forgiven rages against his debtor for a small amount.

There was a man in Lodung'okwe who helped everyone, who gave advice, who was a man of faith and very much appreciated by the community. One night he was robbed and killed. The people know who he was, which clan he belongs to and they simply say: "for our sins we have no rain, no development, no leaders, no sheep for sacrifice, no fattened calves for feasting, we are reduced and exhausted; our animals die, our men wander like sleepwalkers looking for what to do, and end up killing the tedium with liquor that makes them momentarily forget their suffering".

Yesterday Mpunyaki's mother came, a once slender woman, stricken by hunger and tuberculosis, while her husband lives only for liquor.

The drought has also affected the growing elephant population and they are desperate for food for their young.

Recently, in Lodung'okwe, people brought food for the poorest, and a group of girls brought a sack of rice to share with orphans and widows. What a great action by a community overwhelmed by hunger and still able to share from their poverty.

In Lodung'okwe every day there are women who show us their simplicity, their wisdom, their virtuous femininity. They are the Samburu women. GAM also supports them as much as possible with its sustainable projects, to help them grow, to empower them and to help them finally recognise the fundamental role they play in their community.

​"We are beings full of passion. Life is desert and oasis. It knocks us down, hurts us, teaches us, makes us the protagonists of our own history. Though the wind blows against us, the mighty work goes on: you can contribute a stanza. Never stop dreaming." (Walt Whitman)

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