A Sign of Love

Do you remember the early 1980s? More specifically, do you remember the Ethiopia famine in the early 1980s? Recurring droughts, failing harvests, and conflict pushed millions into deprivation and starvation. The images from that catastrophe sent shock waves around the world. Perhaps for the first time on such a global scale, … read more

The Pain and Privilege of Isolation

Lockdown’s Silver Lining There is likely nobody in the world who enjoyed the social effects of COVID-19 more than my dog. Some might make the same claim about their own pets, but as far as I can tell, my pup became the happiest creature in the world after March, 2020. We all experienced it … read more

Impossible Problem Meets God of the Impossible

Elisha was on a ministerial trip to Gilgal, visiting 100 prophets. The region was gripped by famine. (2 Kings 4:38, NIV) Hunger haunted the people’s eyes. Fathers feared for their families, and mothers mourned their children’s misery.  When a man came with armloads of bread and some heads of grain, Elisha knew what to … read more

The Gift of Water

The Kibera slum in Kenya is one of the largest informal settlements in Africa, housing up to 60% of Nairobi’s 4.3 million residents.  Beneath the overlapping tin roofs is a hive of activity. Residents move back and forth, hoping to find opportunities to help them cope with their difficult, everyday lives. They live tightly packed, in mostly improvised … read more

From Devastated to Determined

Ali is no stranger to hardship. His farm in Mandera County, Kenya is his family’s only source of food and income, and in a region prone to both drought and flood neither food nor money is ever plentiful or certain. This year a long period of drought was followed quickly by destructive … read more

Changing Lives, No Strings Attached

ADRA believes in serving humanity so all may live as God intended. The “all” encompasses anyone in need, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, political affiliations, or other considerations.   As a faith-based organization, ADRA’s presence in some communities raises understandable skepticism. The Muslim villages in Mandera West, Kenya, had their reservations when ADRA first offered … read more

A Dark Cloud of Locusts

Large swarms of desert locusts have been devastating pasture, crops, and fodder fields in eastern Africa for the last two months. Farmers and herders in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda have been forced to stand by helplessly, as the locusts stripped their fields of everything green. Living in rural Kenya, Mwikali is … read more

Providing Help in A Dry Land

Adan is a respected elder in his community.  He moved to the Mandera West region of Northern Kenya when he was a young man and helped start a settlement that has now become Takaba.  Adan had grown up in a culture of nomadic pastoralists who relied on raising livestock for a living.  Camels, … read more

Gardens in the Midst Drought

For the last five years, Mandera County in Kenya has been gripped by a devastating drought. The people in the county, who are traditionally pastoralists, have watched as their livestock and livelihoods succumbed to hunger and thirst. The people themselves, without a means of providing for their needs, are suffering from acute … read more

I Had Lost Hope

Bandira’s life was hard.  She didn’t have any money and there was not enough food in her home to feed her seven children.  Sometimes they went without food for two days in a row.  Her children were malnourished. It is estimated that over three million Kenyans have been affected by the severe … read more