Young girl in Kenya's Turkana region.

Golden said while emergency aid is needed now, action should be taken to find long-term solutions. Solutions that would allow the Turkana to better cope with drought.

“We could begin right away, looking at boreholes. We could begin looking at irrigation projects. There’s a range of things we could do. But absolutely we have to feed hungry mouths today,” he said.

Respecting a culture

World Relief is working with Kenyan churches to provide food assistance and health services. It’s also working to dig more boreholes, which cost about $20,000 apiece.

“To dig a borehole is to create a community. And will that be a community of disempowerment? Will it be a community that’s totally dependent? Or will you have involved the local community in that process? [Will you have] empowered them with solutions about how to integrate their livestock and elements of their nomadic lifestyle into a settled community?” he asked.

Golden said digging a borehole is not simply a matter of drilling for water. It’s also a matter of being sensitive to the culture of the Turkana.

“If you just think people need water and you dig a borehole and you end up creating in effect thousands of people gathering and waiting to be fed, then you’ve got another disaster. Your intervention into one disaster creates a second disaster. Whereas, what needs to happen is a careful conversation with the local leaders, our Kenyan church partners, on solutions that they have. Where would they put a well if they could dig one? How would they manage it? What role would their current livestock play in their community? Those are the kind of questions and it’s just so much more complex,” he said.