Healing Trauma after Floods in Kenya

"Run now or you will die alone." With these words, Beatrice* and Marta* were awakened by their screaming neighbours one fateful night in April. It was around two in the morning when relentless flash floods rushed through the slums of Mathare and Kibera in Nairobi, sweeping away homes and livelihoods. Since then, nothing has been the same for the devastated community.

"It rained heavily and the water came with a lot of force and all of a sudden. My grandchild was with me that night. In a very short time, the water was up to my chin. Neighbours ran into my house and helped me save the child. The water even overflowed the roof of my house," recalls 72-year-old Marta*.

The grandmother was sheltering with her grandchild in a vocational centre in Nairobi's Mathare slum when Medair's Global Emergency Response Team arrived to assess the situation. More than 300,000 people had been affected by above-normal rainfall during the March-April-May rainy season earlier this year. Flash floods and landslides claimed more than 300 lives and caused mass displacement in many regions of Kenya. Nairobi was one of the hardest hit areas. Our team identified large single-parent households and the elderly as the most vulnerable groups of flood survivors in Nairobi. Together with our local partners, Age Watch Africa Foundation and Artolution, and in close coordination with local authorities and the affected community, Medair implemented a multi-sectoral emergency response.

Cash Assistance - A Fresh Start After the Floods

500 of the most vulnerable households were targeted for Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance. With a one-time payment through mobile money, flood survivors were able to choose what to buy with Medair's financial support. Whether it was new school uniforms and books for children, the cost of medicines, or rent for a new home or small business space, each family was free to choose how to spend the money according to their individual needs. Medair's team in the Nairobi office, which normally supports other Medair country programmes in East Africa, stepped in to help screen the flood survivors and collect their information for payment.

"With your financial support, I was able to rent a new house after my house was washed away," said Beatrice*. "Medair called me to verify my eligibility and asked me some detailed questions to check how badly I was affected by the floods. I received the money on my mobile phone account. I paid the rent for the new house, bought the bedding and some clothes, and hired an electrician to install electricity because the house did not have it before. I bought food with the rest of the money. I am very happy because the money helped me to get my life back on track. I had no place to stay, no bedding, no clothes, and the money you gave me helped me buy all that. So now I feel much more comfortable. I can start my life again.”

Psychological First Aid to Cope With Trauma  

In the slums of Nairobi, where resources and opportunities are scarce, the community was hit particularly hard by the floods. What little they had was swept away in seconds when the devastating floods struck hundreds of sleeping families in the middle of the night. This shocking experience has left a deep wound in the minds and hearts of the people. Too much for anyone to cope with alone.

"People here have lost their livelihoods and loved ones, they are stressed, scared and anxious," explains Luther, our Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Advisor. "People may take a long time to recover, they live with nightmares and fears. Every time it rains, they may not be able to sleep and they are afraid. Unless they get proper psychosocial support."

Medair helped set up structures for psychological first aid. Our team trained first responders in counselling to give them tools to use when reaching out to affected families.  

"The Psychological First Aid (PFA) trainings helped equip people to support themselves and others in times of need. After the training, the participants knew how to communicate with people affected by such a crisis. And they are now able to listen to what people are going through. What are their most pressing needs? How to communicate with them and link them to services. In most cases, there are no specialists on the ground immediately after disasters, and in the future, when a disaster happens again, those we have trained will be able to help and train others who have been affected by the disaster. Our groups here have been very happy to learn, I can tell by their response to the training and their commitment. They will now be able to pass on the knowledge to other people," Luther continues.

Sarah and Denis attended the training, and have since worked tirelessly in the slums of Mathare to provide support to those in need. In addition to following up with recipients of Medair's cash assistance, they visit households to listen to the stories of flood survivors, comfort them, and offer compassion and care. Sarah, a recent psychology graduate who volunteers with the local NGO Age Watch and participated in the trainings, reflects on her experience providing psychological first aid in the slums during our project:

"People here feel forgotten. They think no one really knows what happened to the flood survivors. People here do not have many options. The positive impact we see in our own work is that after a few sessions with people, they are able to identify the kind of feelings they are going through and they are able to process the trauma. And they are able to accept that the floods happened. They gain new hope and they accept change. It is an encouragement. Personally, I also feel emotional when I am here. If this chaos is the aftermath of what happened, what kind of scenes must have happened during the night of the floods? I love humanity and I am also interested in helping trauma victims. It gives me a chance to connect with people on a larger level. I also feel that I am growing as a person by providing this PFA. I am learning to use different approaches for different personalities. You have to be empathetic. You have to be non-judgmental because in the beginning you do not know what the other person is really suffering from.”

On our journey through the slums with Sarah and Denis, we met Jane*. A 53-year-old mother of four, she lost her home and livelihood in the floods. Despite her loss, she decided to attend Medair's PFA training and is now helping her community.

"After the training, I was able to sensitise my friends and neighbours about what I had learned in the training. I am excited about the training and want to learn more. The training has had a positive impact on my life. I can see that I can make a difference in other people's lives with what I have learned. It has given me a different perspective," says Jane*.

A grandmother of two, Jane is still in the process of coming to terms with her trauma. The counselling sessions that Sarah and Denis provide for her have had a huge impact on Jane's well-being.

"The team counselled me and I was able to process my traumatic experiences really well and I had a safe space to share my feelings. I understood that it was better for me to get away from the water. That was a turning point for me. It was great to have someone reach out and hold my hand. After the floods, at first I felt that no one was really compassionate enough to understand what it means to be a flood victim who has lost property. But now I know that you are there to look after my wellbeing and that made me happy and excited.”

The Healing Power of Art

Everyone deals with trauma in a different way. Grieving is an individual journey and it takes different amounts of time for each person to come to terms with loss and find new strength and hope.

Richard Waindi, founder and CEO of the Age Watch Africa Foundation, explains:

"Some people recover faster than others. Older people take longer to recover. They had settled down. What they lost was their home. They have been displaced into unstable living situations.”

What can help not only older people, but all members of the community, is to deal with trauma together in a positive and proactive way. Creative engagement through empowering projects, where flood survivors come together and create something meaningful and beautiful for themselves and others with their own hands.  

After several successful pilot projects in 2023 in other country programmes, Medair partnered with an art organisation called Artolution to conduct workshops to create community-led memorial murals in the slums of Nairobi to help people express their feelings and cope with trauma through a collaborative art project. The artist invited representatives from the flood-affected community to share their experiences and participate in the design and painting of the mural.

Artolution's Field Manager Amos is confident of the project's success:

"We are changing lives through art. It can do a lot of work and has a huge impact on the people affected by the floods. The participants enjoyed the fact that it brought them together and allowed them to get away from the trauma, relax and get ideas on where to find solutions for the next disaster. The community is very happy and welcomed the idea of the mural. It has helped them, it has kept them busy. During the brainstorming session, they were able to express what the tragedy meant to them. They can now communicate through the wall and it calms them.”

The opening days in Mathare and Kibera were a testament to the joy of the community and the healing power of the mural project. Youth groups and children danced and cheered, and project participants were proud and happy of what they had created during the workshop week.

Marta*, the grandmother we met earlier in the trip, tells us:

"I have never painted a wall with a brush before. I liked it and it makes me feel good. I painted to remember the scenes that happened during the flood. It helped me to process the scenes. The trauma will pass slowly. The painting has power because it gives messages to the people and they can learn from it. The mural reminds me of the buildings that were swept away by the raging flood and makes me happy for a new beginning and a fresh start. When I look at the mural, I can see that God has done something great for the community. There is a sense of restoration. I see hope when I look at this mural.”

Hope and restoration - lives in crisis transformed in not one, but three integrated ways. Medair's Emergency Response Lead, Richard, is proud of the impact and positive change his team has been able to bring to the community, working with local partners Age Watch and Artolution.

"This project provides local solutions to local problems. Bringing the community together is a very positive way of expressing themselves, especially for those affected by the floods. Dignity and integrity are part of our core values. We come to the people. Medair is community. We go the last mile. We go where the community is. We reach them, we engage them, and we look for solutions. Art is a good way to engage the community. It was very much in line with our values. It touches my heart to see something that comes from people's minds transferred to their hands on the wall and people can see it every day. From now on, they will see their ideas on the wall every day. I want to thank Medair, Artolution, Age Watch, and the community that has embraced us and the PFA work, and I am grateful to be involved in this project. It is a unique opportunity to see the community positively impacted after such a devastating trauma. It is beautiful.”  

It will take more time and effort for the community to recover from the traumatic experience of the floods. Although Medair's emergency relief project in Nairobi will end in September, the positive impact will last much longer. With Medair’s financial support, families have been able to restart their small businesses, creating a sustainable source of income. The community is equipped with new tools to provide psychological first aid in future shocks, to bring healing and compassionate care to the vulnerable. And the murals will shine as a symbol of hope, always reminding people in a positive way how they have overcome tragedy and come together as a community.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the donors who made this emergency response possible. Together we have been able to change lives and show a community in shock that they are not forgotten and that people really do care.

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* Names marked with * have been changed.

Medair’s Flooding Response is funded by generous private donors.

This content was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.  

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