- Kenya
- Even it Up
“When the drought killed all my cattle, we remained with nothing. I came here. Being a nomad, I knew nothing other than looking after animals. I had no option but to look for ways to survive. I started growing maize but it couldn’t sustain me and my kids”.
Gamana Mohamed now lives in Jaijai, a small town in the vast Wajir County in Northern Kenya. She was one of the participants of an Oxfam programme to strengthen community resilience project, which provides them with grass seeds as well as training programs.
She recounts her first encounter with Oxfam people, who introduced her to grass farming.
“When I first heard this idea of growing grass, it looked ridiculous because the only thing I knew is that grass grows naturally. But when I saw the result, I was convinced. It was a remedy to the unpredictable rains we depended on for centuries”.
Asked what she will say to fellow women in the area who did not embrace fodder farming, she stated, “I will tell them to not sit back. I will tell them I have benefited from the fodder farming and they too can benefit from it.”
“The harvest of the fodder is enough for me and my kids, it pays my children’ school fees! The main problem we have now is inadequate water and wild animals breaking in to the farm at night. If there was enough water, we would have harvested double what we are harvesting now. I would love it if Oxfam continues helping us like they did for the last two years.”
Photo: Benson Guantai/Oxfam
Take action!
We live in a world where a select few have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes, while millions of people around the world struggle to have access to water, food, education and healthcare. Join Oxfam’s Even It Up campaign, to call on world leaders to end extreme inequality.
Read more about our campaign here: https://act.oxfam.org/international/even
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