Dorcas’ Bold Step to Rescue Her Children Amidst Crisis and Drought

When Dorcas’s three-year-old twins, Akilim and Elemut, fell dangerously ill, she made a life-changing decision: to leave her home in the mountains of Turkana and move closer to a health clinic run by Save the Children. 

In her previous home, access to healthcare was nearly impossible. “Where I used to live near the mountain, there was no hospital. If a child gets sick, they could die before getting any help,” she says. Like many families in pastoralist communities, Dorcas long depended on livestock for food and income. But successive, severe droughts made worse by climate change wiped out her herd. Her family faced hunger, surviving on borrowed food and charcoal sales, sometimes going up to five days without eating. 

Save the Children’s outreach health clinic became a lifeline. Held outdoors every two weeks, the clinic provides vital health and nutrition services to children under five and pregnant and lactating mothers in hard-to-reach areas of Turkana. 

When Dorcas brought her children to the clinic, Akilim was diagnosed with moderate acute malnutrition and diarrhea. He received a 5-day course of medication comprising paracetamol, amoxicillin DT, and metronidazole, and was put on a nutritious treatment of fortified peanut paste. His twin, Elemut, had recently recovered from malnutrition, and their cousin, four-year-old Ngasike, was also treated on the same day. 

Dorcas's youngest, a 15-month-old girl, remains healthy, thanks to breastfeeding. But survival remains a daily struggle. “If I don’t have charcoal to sell, we don’t eat. I buy food on credit, but when my debt reaches 500 shillings, I can’t borrow anymore,” she explains. 

Despite treatment, the children have relapsed twice. Without stable access to nutritious food, they remain vulnerable to food insecurity. The outreach clinic provides continuous monitoring—checking their weight, height, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), and temperature and offering malaria screening. Those in need are treated immediately or given medicine to use at home. Dorcas was also given water purification sachets to protect her family from waterborne diseases. 

“Our livestock are all gone,” Dorcas says. “Now that drought has killed everything, we survive by burning charcoal. If Save the Children wasn't here, my children would have died.” 

Her sister, Abori, who also attends the clinic, brought her daughter Ngasike, age four, who was diagnosed with moderate acute malnutrition. “The MUAC band was yellow,” she recalls. “She was given PlumpyNut and later improved. Getting treatment is a good thing because she gets help.” 

Catherine, a nutritionist at the clinic, shared how they managed Dorcas’s children. “When I received them, they were very severely wasted. We enrolled them in the Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) for severely malnourished children. After three months of treatment and follow-up, they transitioned to the Supplementary Feeding Programme (SFP). There was real improvement—both physically and emotionally.” 

Dorcas’s story is just one among thousands in Turkana County, where the climate crisis is pushing families to the edge. As droughts grow more frequent and intense, malnutrition and preventable diseases threaten the lives of children. Globally, diarrhea is one of the top five causes of death in children under five, and malnourished children are at even greater risk. 

Extreme weather events around the world, including prolonged droughts in Kenya, are becoming more intense due to climate change. Families are increasingly unable to recover from climate shocks on their own. In Turkana, most pastoralist families have lost their livestock, which is their primary source of food and income. Many, like Dorcas, are still reeling from the effects of the 2023 drought more than a year later. 

But through Save the Children’s nutrition outreach clinics and community health promoters, families are gaining access to lifesaving support and information. These initiatives are part of the ACCEPT project, funded by the UK government through their UK Aid Match scheme, which aims to improve access to health and nutrition services for vulnerable children and mothers. 

Since the ACCEPT project began in 2023, it has made a remarkable impact on the health and survival of vulnerable children and mothers in Turkana and beyond. A total of 908 health workers, including 10 with disabilities, have been trained to manage childhood illnesses and malnutrition, significantly strengthening local health systems. So far 43,022 children under five (including 123 children with disabilities) and 24,408 pregnant and lactating women (including PLWs) have received critical health and nutrition services. The project has also empowered over 300 community health promoters with skills in early detection and community-based care, ensuring that families in remote areas are not left behind. As a result of these efforts, no deaths due to malnutrition have been reported in the areas supported by the project. Stock-outs of vital medicines and nutrition supplies have been significantly reduced in health facilities, and 34,538 caregivers have been reached with lifesaving guidance on Family MUAC and maternal nutrition, helping them detect and respond to malnutrition early and effectively. 

Today, Dorcas continues to bring her children to the clinic every two weeks. She dreams of a better life for them, one where they are healthy, in school, and free from hunger. “I want them to study and stay well,” she says. 

As the climate crisis tightens its grip on communities like Dorcas’s, Save the Children’s health centres remain a lifeline. Donations from kind individuals, matched pound for pound by the UK government through UK Aid Match, have helped us reach more families, deliver essential care, and protect the next generation from hunger, disease, and loss. With your continued support, more children like Akilim and Elemut can survive the harshest conditions and thrive. 

By Lucia Zoro