Action Against Hunger

Facing the region’s worst drought in 70 years, more than 16 million people across the Horn of Africa cannot access enough water. Habiba Kanchora Wario was one of them. Each morning, the Kenyan mother of three would wake up at 6 a.m. to trek miles to the closest water source. The journey was hot, exhausting, and dangerous, as women are often targets of violent attacks from traveling herdsmen. After arriving hours later, Habiba would wait in the burning sun for her turn at the untreated, un-sanitized livestock trough. Livestock always drank first, so she could fill only one jerrycan—or none at all. At home, her three children would wait for her return, each hungry from a long day with little food or water. Nearly one million children just like them, across the country, are malnourished. Habiba would cook with what little she had, fall asleep, and wake the next morning...