*Shot 30 March 2017, Lukole village and Hell’s Kitchen, near Malindi, Kenya
*B-roll duration 04:20, mute/natural sound, Swahili
*DJI Phantom 4 drone aerials, ground shots
*Source Kenya Red Cross Society, pool coverage, no restrictions
If ‘resilience’ wears human faces in Kenya, one of them undoubtedly belongs to John Paul Kuzungu – a 36-year-old farmer and father of five in the community of Lukole, in the near hinterland behind the coastal city of Malindi. In this part of Coast province, the drought affecting much of the country has turned all but two of five large hand-dug ‘water pans’ – reservoirs engineered to catch and retain rainwater – into bone-dry moonscapes.The water pans were organized by the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) with donor support from the World Food Programme, and by Caritas. Ironically, their newly exposed beds resemble miniature versions of the world-famous local tourist attraction at the Marafa Depression known as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ – a vast, ornate, jagged canyon carved out of the sandstone by wind and water. But thanks to its simple but extremely effective furrow-irrigation system, the farm John Paul and his wife Grace run on the banks of the River Galana is a cornucopia that both feeds the family and provides a cash surplus from the 50 per cent or so of its output they can spare for sale. The pipe network was installed by the KRCS with support from the Austrian and Finnish Red Cross and the Safaricom Foundation as part of another programme, the Integrated Community Resilience-Building Project (ICRBP) – Phase 3 of which ends next year; other ICRBP interventions included water and sanitation, health, and risk reduction. When the project was first scoped, John Paul farmed barely an acre, all of it rain-fed. He had enjoyed one stroke of luck when his plot just escaped a major collapse of the river bank triggered by floods, but it was subsistence and it was a struggle.
Once pipes were laid, his farm quickly tripled in size and from his three acres he now produces an array of vegetables that would excite even the best-supplied, first-world organic enthusiasts: tomatoes, eggplant, pawpaw, passion fruit, sugar cane, banana, cassava, maize, amaranth, and – the ones regarded locally as the most drought-resistant – cowpea and green grams. A squat, cheerful, immensely tough-looking man, John Paul never looked back. Now he need only start up the diesel pump, charge the network either from his well or direct from the river, and open it at a hydrant where water is needed. Gravity does the rest. Aside from anything else, it’s relatively effortless and leaves precious energy to spare in the heat and humidity. To his already impressive list of products, his neighbours – and there just over 80 nearby farmers who have been assisted in this way under ICRBP – could add okra, kale, chilli and green pepper. From both the ground and the air, the farms in the project area look and feel abundant, even though the drought makes itself felt but a few kilometres away.
SHOWS:
-Still of boy who was walking across dried up water pan
-Stone nameplate at KRCS water pan
-Tracking aerial around inside of rim of pan
-Still KRCS vehicle at water pan
-Still of surface of pan from inside crevice
-Ascending aerial of pan (vehicle comes into shot at top left)
-Aerial tracking from River Galana aerial across John Paul’s farm
-Second tracking aerial across farm
-Farmworker Kalama Gina Mdachi tending young passion fruit trees
-Close shot of him
-Grace cooking on open fire
-Aerial short climb over farm
-Ground shot Red Cross staff and John Paul walking through farm
-Shot looking down well, panning up to John Paul (red polo shirt)
-Soundbite in Swahili of John Paul at his well, translation: “Generally if you want to have sufficient water you have to dig deep”
-Five ground shots of John Paul operating pump
-Malindi Red Cross field officers Halima Kassim Omar (right) and Hafswa Hassan Bakari
-Second soundbite in Swahili of John Paul at his well, translation: “You pump out the water for the crops that is left in the well, then pump the new fresh water that comes up to the household tank for drinking”
-John Paul standing on bank of River Golana
-Aerial along collapsed bank of river
-Tracking aerial across farm showing variety of crops
-Aerial climbing away from Community Chairlady Jennifer Hinzino, ICRBP focal person, standing at John Paul’s well
-Aerial across Hell’s Kitchen
-Second aerial across Hell’s Kitchen
(ends)
