Our Partners – Diocese of Lodwar

Photo: Women walking long distances to gather water in Turkana, Northern Kenya. (Gary Moore)

The Catholic Diocese of Lodwar has been working to improve the livelihoods of the Turkana people in Turkana District, Northern Kenya for over 40 years.

Turkana District is a vast, semi-arid, remote area, larger than the island of Ireland. The majority of the 600,000 people of Turkana are semi nomadic pastoralists.

The Diocese of Lodwar works with the Turkana community at a grassroots level across the region. Through its network of 25 parishes, 300 outstations and 6 development departments (Health, Water, Education, Women, Youth, Justice and Peace), the Diocese provides the majority of health services in the region and is the major development actor in Turkana.

Background

The development work of the Diocese of Lodwar first began with the construction of a well equipped Mission Hospital in Kakuma in the late 1960’s, which still operates as the largest and best equipped hospital in the region. The Diocese of Lodwar quickly realised that the underlying cause of many of the illnesses among the Turkana was malnutrition, but in order to improve the diet of the local communities, access to water needed, which in turn would enable the Turkana to maintain and develop their herds and also to initiate small scale farming initiatives.

Health and Water Programmes

The Diocese of Lodwar’s health programme provides 65% of all healthcare in Turkana. Through its well equipped Mission Hospital in Kakuma, 9 primary healthcare centres and 2 health clinics, almost 400,000 men, women and children in Turkana benefit from some aspect of the Diocese’s health programme. The reach of the health programme is further extended to isolated nomadic communities through outreach work and a health education programme in all schools across Turkana.

The main activities of the health programme are the operation of the medical facilities, training of medical staff, HIV and AIDS programme; maternal health services; nutritional programmes; building community awareness of health and sanitation issues.

The Diocese of Lodwar has also developed their own and local capacity to create a variety of clean water sources such as boreholes and shallow wells. While in the past, water interventions consisted almost entirely of drilling boreholes, now rock dams and earth pans are increasingly being used in consideration of environmental issues.

The earth pans and rock dams are part of the Diocese of Lodwar’s Turkana Water Project, which aims to increase the number of functional water points and to reduce the impact of cyclical droughts on the local population by capturing and storing rain when it does eventually come. The 18 earth and rock dams constructed by the Diocese over the last 5 years have filled with water for at least 9 months of the year following significant rainfall and have provided access to water for previously water insecure households. Long term agriculture and food security programmes can only take place with adequate and fairly distributed water resources.

In the delivery of health, water and education services to the people of Turkana, the Diocese co-ordinates and collaborates with the local and national government, Ministries of water, health and education, local and international NGOs, churches and community organisations.

Aidlink and the Diocese of Lodwar

Aidlink and the Diocese of Lodwar have been working together for the last 10 years primarily on water programmes. More recently the programme support has broadened into primary health care, return to education programmes for vulnerable youth and innovative agriculture projects (shambas).

The Diocese of Lodwar is now one of Aidlink’s key local partner organisations in Kenya and Aidlink staff regularly visit the Diocese of Lodwar offices and its programme sites to monitor the progress of activities and to engage in strategic planning. Aidlink also encourages and facilitates reciprocal visits by the Director of the Diocese of Lodwar to Ireland to meet with key Irish donors and discuss the Diocese of Lodwar’s plans and programmes.

Impact

An Independent Impact Assessment (2009) of Aidlink funded activities in Turkana indicated that the Diocese of Lodwar has had a very positive impact on the lives of communities through the integrated health, water, agriculture and education programmes. Some of the highlights included: reduced distances to travel to water points; easy access to water for both human and livestock consumption; improved food security and nutrition through agriculture production; reduced mortality especially amongst children; improved access to maternal health services.

Photo: ‘Shamba’ in Turkana District. (Gary Moore)