A relief agency details the needs of drought-affected Kenya.

Kenya (MNN)–Kenya is asking for 97-million dollars in drought relief in an effort to stave off famine.

According to the United Nations, one in every three people in drought-stricken areas now suffers from acute malnutrition, and worsening food shortages threaten millions in the East African nation.

Add to that the fact that 60-percent of the crops planted have failed in five out of eight of the country’s provinces, and there is another national disaster on the horizon. Many farmers are forced to eat their seed, perpetuating the slow crop cycle.

Food For The Hungry’s Dave Evans says their teams have moved from long-term work back into the urgency of the present. “There are pockets where you have almost nothing produced. So, those are the villages and regions that we will be focusing on, that we will be targeting the most, is those who have almost had nothing. In those cases, without outside assistance, there will be some malnutrition, probably loss of life.”

Evans explains the holistic approach their teams have toward practical ministry in Kenya. “This might be talking to people about the Gospel, it might be demonstrating it ways of handing out food and actually working on longer term relief and rehab and development activities that allow them to talk about God’s sovereignty and God’s love for these people.”

According to FH, there is exciting growth to report of the evangelical church in Kenya. The country boasts 13 million evangelicals–36 percent of the population, the highest percentage of any country in Africa and nearly equal to the evangelical population of Europe.