Horn of Africa Crisis
PMNCH Partners launch emergency efforts to save lives in East Africa
21 July 2011 – PMNCH Partners have sprung into action in response to the growing crisis in East Africa, rallying efforts to help women and children survive one of the region’s worst droughts in 60 years.
More than 10 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are in desperate need of food, clean water and basic sanitation, with the number growing by the day. The UN is predicting the situation will deteriorate and continue into next year. Despite the severity of the crisis, international donors have yet to commit the amount needed to fund the humanitarian response.
A number of PMNCH members have launched emergency efforts to address the urgent need for humanitarian relief and stronger commitments to long term solutions:
ONE Campaign calls for an end to the starving — and its causes
ONE International, a grassroots advocacy campaign fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, is calling on governments to save millions of lives in the Horn of Africa today and tomorrow. The campaign has launched a petition urging world leaders to provide the full funding that the UN has identified as necessary to provide immediate relief to people suffering in the Horn of Africa, and to keep their promises to deliver the long term solutions which could prevent crises like this happening again.
UNICEF airlifts emergency nutritional supplies to drought affected children in southern Somalia
The humanitarian children’s organization UNICEF has airlifted emergency nutritional supplies to Somalia’s southern region as part of its life-saving efforts to help children suffering from worsening malnutrition in the drought-stricken area. The organization says Somalia has become the epicenter of acute malnutrition in the Horn of Africa because of extreme instability in the country due to conflict and drought. For the most part humanitarian agencies have been unable to work in southern Somalia since early 2010, which has restricted the UN’s ability to address the nutritional needs of those living in this region — especially children. More than half a million children in Mogadishu, and in families fleeing from southern Somalia to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, are estimated to be suffering from acute malnutrition.
Save the Children launches ambitious campaign to keep up with crisis
Save the Children has already reached tens of thousands of underweight children in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, providing life-saving medical treatment, and getting clean water to remote communities. But with the situation worsening by the day — and no more rain due till late September — the organization has launched an urgent call to donors to help dramatically ramp up its response. Save the Children’s new weekly goal: $1 million to help save 10,000 children.
CARE launches US$25 million appeal to combat worsening food crisis
CARE International, one of the world’s leading aid agencies, has also launched an emergency appeal to increase food, water and emergency relief for people affected by the drought in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. CARE is already providing emergency assistance to nearly one million people, but the organization says additional funding is urgently needed to scale up its response to the growing crisis.
ActionAid rallies support for the region’s most vulnerable
ActionAid , an NGO working with poor and marginalized people to eradicate poverty, has already reached more than 200,000 people affected by drought in the Horn of Africa with emergency food supplies, water and income generating programs. The organization aims to reach an additional 120,000 people with much-need food and water. ActionAid’s response efforts focus on the most severely affected and vulnerable community members: women, children, the elderly and people living with HIV and AIDS. In addition to providing on-the-ground humanitarian assistance, the organization is also working to address the root cause of increasingly severe drought, climate change, asking developed countries to dedicate substantial new resources to help developing countries adapt.
Vaccination campaign saving children in the Horn of Africa
05 August 2011 -- The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in over 50 years; child malnutrition rates are already high and are expected to rise. Malnourished children are more prone to sicknesses and diseases, such as measles. To protect them WHO conducted a campaign to vaccinate 215 000 children and provide them with vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets.