A Smidge of Hope

By Austin Bailey

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: November 10, 2011


Are you up on the latest out of the Horn of Africa? If not, you’re not the only one. Bleak news on top of bleak news tends to drive readers away after a while.

So how about some good news? Luckily there is finally some of that coming out of Somalia and Kenya. The Associated Press reports that babies and children so malnourished they were expected to die a few months ago are making heartening recoveries. Among them is Minhaj Gedi Farah, who was 7 months old and weighed only seven pounds when he arrived with his mother at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. With medical care and nutritional supplements, the boy put on more than 10 pounds over the past three months. Photos today reveal him to be a plump, happy little guy.

Unfortunately, emaciated babies and children continue to file into Dadaab, and escape routes from Somalia to the camp are now mired in mud and fighting. As aid agencies continue to battle the famine, Heifer is planning projects that can help people in the region weather future crises.