In May 2024, Kisumu, Kenya experienced severe flooding when the River Nyando overflowed, reflecting the growing unpredictability of rainfall patterns due to climate change. These floods caused widespread economic and non-economic losses, destroying homes, displacing families, damaging agricultural livelihoods, and disrupting essential infrastructure such as sanitation facilities. Children were disproportionately affected, facing disrupted schooling, increased exposure to health risks, psychosocial trauma, and heightened protection concerns, including sexual and gender-based violence. Families dependent on agriculture struggled to meet basic needs, compounding their economic and emotional vulnerabilities.
The response to the crisis was led by Kisumu Shinners, a youth-led, community-based organization that mobilized rapidly to provide context-specific support. Drawing on local resources and donations, the organization offered temporary shelter, food, clothing, antiretroviral medication, and psychosocial services. They also facilitated access to counselling, essential healthcare, and child protection measures, while creating safe spaces for children to play and recover from trauma. Recognizing the disruption to livelihoods, Kisumu Shinners encouraged income diversification, connecting families with technical support and opportunities to supplement agricultural incomes.
Kisumu Shinners’ approach was child-responsive, inclusive, and tailored to the socially differentiated needs of vulnerable groups, including LGBTQIA+ youth and children living with chronic health conditions. Their interventions combined economic support, healthcare access, psychosocial care, and child protection measures, ensuring a holistic response that addressed both immediate and longer-term impacts on children and families. By leveraging strong relationships with local service providers, the organization could deliver timely and relevant support during the crisis.
The initiative reached approximately 500 children, mitigating both economic and non-economic losses and demonstrating the critical role of youth-led, community-based organizations in responding to climate-related disasters. However, limited funding constrained their capacity to fully address protection concerns and scale support to more affected children. The case highlights the need for accessible, sustained Loss and Damage finance mechanisms that empower local organizations, enabling them to provide durable, context-specific solutions for children and communities facing climate-related crises.
Sustained financial support, partnerships with accredited entities, and operational pathways for small community-based organizations are essential to ensure that local actors like Kisumu Shinners can continue to deliver effective interventions, safeguard children’s wellbeing, and build resilience to future climate shocks.
