This article originally ran in Hope Quarterly 40.
Lake Turkana is the world’s largest permanent lake in a desert, spreading across nearly 2,500 square miles in northern Kenya; its northern tip edges into Ethiopia. This is not drinking water. Local children must walk miles to gather water from rivers and streams before it flows into the lake and becomes too filled with pollution and minerals to drink.
As drought has impacted the region since 2020, food insecurity has grown.
“The crisis has reached critical levels,” says Tom McLane, African regional leader for Convoy of Hope’s International Program. “More than 500,000 people in Turkana County are dealing with a lack of food, widespread malnutrition, and the devastation of their livestock and agriculture.”
But there is a better future on the horizon for this region. Convoy of Hope developed a pilot program in 2024 that has quickly expanded to feed more than 6,000 children each school day in 13 schools, offer mentoring to more than 3,200 girls as they pursue positive futures, train 114 women in entrepreneurial skills, and assist 35 area farmers in expanding their harvests.
Those meals make an enormous difference in child development. The improved nutrition dramatically increases the ability to concentrate and learn.
“Class attendance is up,” says Martin Ekomwa, a principal at one of the schools. “The children want to come to school. These are students with the potential to become teachers, businesspeople, and doctors.”
Turkana County powerfully reflects similar outcomes in communities across Africa. Omar Harouna, a West African nutritionist for Convoy, thinks of one little girl who must walk seven miles to school. He is grateful for the renewed energy her school meals now provide for that journey.
“An important part of what we do is offer training in malnutrition awareness in the schools,” Omar says. “We want our intervention to be longer lasting than just the meals.”
Edgar Oswego, nutritionist for Convoy’s Kenya program, has an ambitious goal for his homeland. “There are currently some 1 million malnourished children across Kenya,” he says. “We are working toward the goal of seeing 100,000 of them receive regular, nutritious meals.”
Once that goal is reached, Edgar believes, resources will be in place to nourish more of the remaining 900,000.
Tiana Anjarasoa, a nutritionist in Madagascar, remembers one little girl who was overjoyed to receive an egg in her Convoy meal. “She had never had a whole egg for herself,” Tiana says. “She refused to eat it at school but instead carried it home to share with her little brother.”
While Convoy’s work in Africa has grown, the mission is far from finished. With added trucks, warehouses, and product, Convoy expects to feed 400,000 children across the continent every school day by 2030. As well, 114,800 women and girls will be involved in empowerment programs each year, and 26,500 farmers will be trained annually for increased harvests.
The goal is to provide lasting hope and improvement. Once that goal is achieved and a community becomes a self-sustaining point of hope, Convoy moves on to other communities in desperate need.
“Convoy is helping us think outside the box,” says Principal Ekomwa in Turkana County. “We are looking beyond their provision of food to what else we can do.”
Thanks to Convoy’s dedicated teams and faithful friends, thriving communities across Africa are sharing kindness and renewed hope with others in need around them.
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