Children with milk at CARE Kenya project.Despite being one of Africa’s most developed nations, the gap between rich and poor is growing.
Around 23 per cent of people in Kenya live below the poverty line, and life expectancy rates are falling.
Girls are sometimes refused an education or treatment in hospitals. The law does not completely protect them against violence.
In 1997 we helped establish the Girl Child Network of 280 local organisations and community groups which lobby to change government policy to protect girls and ensure they have the same opportunities as boys.
Fighting HIV and AIDS
AIDS has had a devastating impact, especially on the poor, often leaving the elderly and the young to fend for themselves as the family's bread-winner dies.
We help orphans, pregnant or elderly women - or their carers - to earn a steady income, which ensures people live longer, fuller lives, not least because they can pay for much-needed food and medicine.
We also raise awareness about AIDS and other reproductive health issues among the communities we work in.
Responding to food shortages
CARE has been particularly successful at helping farmers earn more by giving them training on market standards and then linking them up with wider markets and suppliers so they can sell their produce in other countries - such as the UK.
As the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) partner, CARE also provides food, shelter, education and water to some 170,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in Somalia, and food to 140,000 people in north eastern Kenya where the effects of drought are acutely felt.
In 2006, our emergency work expanded to include trucking water to the needy and rebuilding boreholes in an attempt to stop more people leaving their homes for refugee camps.
