El Nino current intensified the latest of the country’s recurring droughts. Climate change has caused longer, more severe dry periods. If another harvest fails, up to 20 million people could face life-threatening food shortages unless they receive immediate aid. Fatuma is better able to cope with drought thanks to a CRS project that includes, among other things, microfinance and natural resources management components. CRS’ resilience project is meant to break this cycle by taking a grassroots approach to finding responses to climate change. Communities receive training
in a number of different areas and then take matters into their own hands. Project participants have built resilience by: Improving their families’ financial health through saving groups, using loans to start small businesses. Rehabilitating their environment through natural resource management, like building hillside terraces to prevent erosion or diverting streams to improve irrigation. Using early warning mechanisms to communicate weather forecasts so farmers can adapt and better plan their activities. Since early 2015, CRS has helped thousands of people — from farmers to
animal herders — become more resilient by adapting through new behaviours, approaches and technologies. The El Nino crisis means changes are only incremental, but they are a beginning. “There’s been an improvement,” says Fatuma, with a nod to the animals she was able to buy with a loan from her savings group.Joining the group has given her financial independence, a life-changing form of resilience. She’s also had a small harvest thanks to drought-resistant seeds and training on how to cultivate vegetables. “Last year, I said I was open to this project,” she says. “When I joined, I got a lot of information on the immediate risks of drought. Now I’m well-adapted to the situation.” Fatuma has come a long way since last year, when she was afraid of losing her home. “I have much more confidence,” she says, with a little sparkle in her eye. “If it wasn’t for the programme, we would have migrated to look for wages.” Instead, she can sit in her house and hear the reassuring sounds of her goats and calf. JM JUSTICE MAGAZINE 49