"When two elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers"

"When two elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers"__ Ivorian saying.

ADRA Kenya has been directly involved in supporting families and individuals affected by the post-election clashes in Kenya. The support offered includes food items and non-food items such as clothing, blankets, and charcoal for heating and cooking. This emergency response program is being implemented in coordination with a number of NGO's. These agencies have brought their resources together in order to meet the needs of those that were most affected by the unrest in Kenya.

I was privileged to serve with ADRA Kenya. Our target community, the largest slum in the region, Kibera. This area of Nairobi was one of the hardest hit areas as protesters fought along ethnic lines and later had to fight or flee from the police in what turned out to be a bloody mess. ADRA, with the help of its partners has been able to conduct of number of food distribution exercises. Feeding an estimated total of 6,000 people so far. Distribution activities are still in progress as humanitarian agencies look at the long term development needs of the area.

Kibera, for many reasons, has been forgotten and it makes me sad to think that it took a national crisis for the humanitarian and international world to take a serious look at the needs of the people in Kibera. Though there have been efforts to improve the lives of those living in the Kibera slums, the area had not received as much attention as it did over the last couple of weeks as post-election violence erupted in various parts of Kenya. Humanitarian agencies are now feeding people that would have been just as hungry during peaceful times. I'm glad that Kibera has received attention and I hope that as humanitarian agencies and government organizations come together there can be a long lasting solution for those that live in some of the poorest conditions in the world.

As I worked on the emergency response team of ADRA Kenya, I constantly reminded myslef that we were serving people. Human beings like us. People with needs and wants. There came days when my patience was tried and there were days when giving up seemed like a great option. But through it all God gave us the strength to serve without expecting anything in return and provided for our security as we worked in volatile situations. As you look the pictures in this blog entry, don't let your heart be numbed by the numbers affected, think of each figure as a person, a family, a human life in need of love, care, shelter, food, support...people simply needing a hand to pull them out of their poverty.