The daily grind of putting food on the table is stressful for people the world over, especially for women, who still provide the bulk of that work. A changing climate adds to the anxiety, demonstrating the link between climate change and mental health.

Kaloleni in Kilifi County is one of Kenya’s poorest areas, and one of the most impacted by climate change and mental health issues. Women carry buckets of water for miles through the dusty landscape. Homes are mostly built of mud and have no indoor plumbing. Maize plants wither in the heat.

“These communities are struggling to grow their crops and have to spend money on food,” said Zul Merali from The Aga Khan University, who has set up a local institute for mental and brain health, researching the links between climate change and mental health. “This creates a lot of pressure, particularly on women, because they are in charge of making sure that kids and families are fed.”

This farming community is one of Kenya’s most studied populations. A network of community health workers visit all households every month to check how people are doing. They fill in questionnaires that the government uses to understand needs in rural communities.

Humphrey Kitsao is a community health promoter who looks after 115 households in Kilifi County totaling 532 people. He’s done this work for 18 years and says he’s seen a lot of change.

“People here still farm, but their income isn’t like before,” he told The Associated Press. “They have to spend a lot of money on their farms, but often there is no harvest.”

Jasmit Shah is a data scientist at The Aga Khan University’s Brain and Mind Institute who wanted to research the impact of climate change on the mental health of women in Kenya’s rural farming communities. While climate anxiety has been studied in the United States and Europe, no study on mental health had been done with women in this region. There was no baseline.

The university was already supporting Kenya’s government in its data collection in Kilifi County. For its own research on mental health and climate change, it only had to add some questions.

Read the full article about climate change and mental health in Kenya at WTOP.