A Tablet piece on the dramatic economic disparity within Kenya, and a looming crisis:

A world away from the tourist beaches and safari parks, the coffee plantations and market gardens, are thousands suffering from lack of rain and corruption in the north of Kenya. Only the swiftest of aid can prevent catastrophe

So is the situation hopeless? What can we, in Britain, do to help the people of northern Kenya, and indeed other parts of the world? Despite its problems, I brought away from northern Kenya a profound sense of confidence and hope in the operation of local Catholic diocesan development organisations as a focus for on-the-ground aid.

The local Catholic centres in this region, run by qualified nationals, funded mainly by Cafod, are committed to a range of inter-related strategies. Their work includes the provision of extra water bore holes, training in horticultural skills and investment, food aid, education, and health facilities. Meanwhile networks created by dioceses and parishes are crucial to communication and the targeting of individual needs over very wide areas. These include a catalogue of essential requests for items that can make all the difference: the travelling schoolteacher in need of a motor bike, a seamstress whose sewing machine has broken, and Sister Mathilde’s need for HIV-Aids tests and retroviral drugs.

The diocesan development organisations have also been essential in reducing potential conflict between Christians and Muslims. In Isiolo, a town where half the inhabitants are Muslim, and the Catholics represent only 10 per cent, the prayers of the muezzin nevertheless alternate with the Angelus bell. Interfaith meetings sponsored by the diocese extend to collaboration in aid programmes, creating harmony and lending a sense of trust to Catholic efforts to resolve tribal conflicts.

As Cafod launches an emergency appeal this week to help the people of northern Kenya, we should have confidence that our donations are effectively supervised at a national level from Nairobi, as well as efficiently administered and applied at a local level. Kenya itself must rectify its neglect of infrastructure, health and education. But there are urgent needs. Travelling through the region, I found signs of imminent starvation, as well as fear and despair. The people of northern Kenya, especially the women and children, require swift and unconditional aid if a catastrophe on the scale of Darfur is to be avoided.