Akuuta from Kenya is feeling helpless. For her and her family, the effects of climate change are felt every day. She is in great need: how would she feed her children? The fields are dry and crops are lacking. What’s more challenging is that she is a mother of child with a walking disabilities who needs assistance 24/7.
Bravery wears many faces. The act of waking up in the morning, putting your feet down, and facing the day as it comes, is a form of bravery. But there is another form of bravery—the bravery of spirit, of surviving against odds stuck against you in a hostile environment. Naminyi Epuu, a mother of four, who lives in Turkana, represents this spirit.
She was told when she was born, she could see. But for Naminyi, her world has always been dark. She lost her eyesight before she got a glimpse of the world around her. Her perception of her environment is not worldly. It narrows down to her children, food, water, and shelter. When she thinks of Turkana as a county, she says, “I cannot describe Turkana in detail. What I know is that as a resident of Turkana, when drought hits, life becomes harder. One moment your belly is full. The next, you are starving without any idea where the next meal will come from. Turkana is a place with a set of unique problems.”
Naminyi and her children take care of each other. They function as a unit. Her days usually involve supervising her children in house chores. As a person with a disability, it is hard to find work that factors her disability. Years back, when things were good, and they could grow food and save some for a rainy day in the communal granary, she used to help around the farm.
Right now, things are hard, they can go without food or water for one, two or three days. She describes this period as a time of death and struggle.
Like most mothers, she hopes she can provide food for her children. She wishes she could afford education for her children; this would gladden her heart! But, above all, she believes that they will be all right. They will keep living and surviving because it is not about how much you have; it is about just putting a step forward each day, hoping for the best. Hoping things will be different even in a hostile environment.
