It is 10am in Walda Manyatta, a sparsely populated village in Sololo, Marsabit County. It is a cloudy morning and out in the pastures is a herd of goats – twenty something in number – a teenage girl herding them. She is doing an excellent job keeping them in one herd. Here, herding goats is a boys job, but Elema, who is waiting for school to resume, is proving that she too has what it takes.

A few minutes later, Elema is joined by her mother, Guduro Sora, a thirty-something year old mother of five. She is here to see how Elema is doing, and to make sure their goats are feeding well. Mother and daughter exchange a few pleasantries and Guduro returns home, happy and satisfied at what she has seen.

On the walk back to her home, Guduro tells me of how she was abandoned by her husband, left without a source of income or a place to call home for her and her five children. It was a dark day for her. She felt her life as she knew it was over and did not know what would happen to her children, after seeing their father walk out of their lives with no plans of returning.

As Guduro narrates her story, her face beams with joy as she shares how her life has transformed for the better since.

Transformed Lives

After a few minutes, we get to Guduro’s home. It is a mud-walled and iron sheet roofed structure with two rooms – one for the goats, the other for Guduro and her children. Kenya Assemblies of God, the local church in Walda gave it to Guduro and her children when they had nowhere to go. They are forever grateful to have a place to call home.

Here, they have found a new home and are able to create new, happier memories to erase the negative ones of yesteryear.

A Gift That Kept On Giving

To give them a reliable source of income, FH Kenya gave Guduro and her five children five goats – four female and one male. Over the years, the goats have multiplied and increased in number. As the goats increased, so did joy for Guduro and her children.

Guduro says FH Kenya’s intervention was a life saver for her family. Not only do they have a reliable supply of nutritious milk which is important for her young family, Guduro has also been able to sell two goats to buy supplies and commodities for her home, as well as medicines to protect her goats from disease.

With increased milk yield from her herd, Guduro is able to sell the excess milk and purchase vegetables to provide a balanced diet for her family.

Thanks to the intervention from Kenya Assemblies of God and FH Kenya, Guduro and her five children are experiencing a rebirth of hope in their lives. It is something they see and celebrate as their goat herd keeps increasing in number.