Camel's Milk

The camel is central to Somali life and culture. One of the ministries that we have the joy of participating is a camel cooperative project in Raya, a small village and area of bush along the Tana River of Kenya's Northeast province. The cooperative was begun by Ron and Joan Ward with the help of several baptist churches in Ontario, Canada. (We have quite a few photos of the camels of Raya on our short Kennys in Kenya video).

The camel makes many contributions to Somali culture but the one of first importance is their milk. A Somali herdsman living in the bush will drink over eight litres of camel's milk a day (it is what they practically survive on). Presently, the cooperative is supplying camel's milk to a feeding project we are also helping with in Garissa through the local TB hospital.

To help you gain a little more perspective on the Somali love of camel's milk, We are proud to share a short essay from one of our students, Subeer Omar Hindi.

Camel Milk by Subeer Omar Hindi

Camel milk is one of the most popular parts of culture in our country, Somalia. But did you know that we also use camel milk as a medicine.

We use camel milk as medicine for example, when someone has Malaria. We give some camel milk also when someone's stomach needs to be soft. We drink camel milk to get better.

The best time to use camel milk is when it is fresh. I mean when you just get the milk from the camel a short time ago.