The food crisis in East Africa is escalating. Women and children are dying in South Sudan. The number of Kenyans needing emergency food has doubled in the past three months and could soon reach four million. Food prices are spiralling. Many people, weak with hunger, have to make long journeys just to find water. But the last months before the hoped-for harvest in June will be the hardest to bear. All food stocks were exhausted long ago. Most of the livestock are dead, and the crops are not yet fully grown. This is the period when people die. But a good harvest needs rainfall. The March-May rains in Kenya started late this year. In Uganda the rains started early but have been erratic - some areas getting too much and others too little. Mission agencies are giving support during this prolonged drought that has caused the death of livestock and people, but they need more help from the public as the crisis grows.