Starvation grips women and children

Asembo Bay. So small it's just a blur on Google Earth, over 250 miles from Nairobi, very remote and lacking modern healthcare and facilities. The majority of Asembo Bay does not have running water or electricity; women and girls carry water and goods on their heads.

In rural Kenya, widows are often disinherited — left homeless by in-laws, making them vulnerable to rape, abuse, and illness. Women's inability to own their homes keeps them destitute. The law recognizes women's rights to property, but many widows are chased away at their husband's death. The culture supports a superstitious belief that the wife is to blame for this misfortune.

Sometimes a widow is "inherited" by a husband's relative as a concubine. These wives can be forced out to work at high-risk jobs to support their inheritor if they have no education.

There are also a staggering number of orphans in Asembo. Some have one parent but were left in an orphanage due to a lack of food. These kids can be abused, or caring for an adult who is sick, unemployed, and destitute. There are many emotional problems due to lack of parenting as well.