Families rebuild homes after surviving floods

Hundreds of families that were displaced by floods in Kenya's coastal districts earlier this year are now rebuilding their lives with help from Plan.

Over 200,000 people are struggling to start life all over again, having lost their houses, crops and animals to the floods. To make matters worse, the area has also been hit by Rift Valley Fever - leading to a ban on cattle trade and the closure of all slaughter houses.

This development has far-reaching implications for the coast communities, which are predominantly dependent on cattle for income.  Many parents who hoped to get money from the livestock that survived the floods are now penniless and unable to raise fees for their children to attend high school. 

Support for communities

Improved weather over the last seven weeks has seen scores of families that took refuge in mosques, churches and schools return to their communities.

Plan, which supplied emergency food, medicine and mosquito nets during the floods, is now providing families with seeds and support to rebuild their houses.

Residents are planting ahead of the long rains expected in March. "We have had to come back to start preparing the fields to plant other wise we risk famine,” said Juma Kazungu who moved to a mosque in a neighbouring village with his family of six.

None of his cows and goats survived. "We have to start all over again," he said.

Find out more about Plan’s work in Kenya