As Famine Declared in Parts of Somalia, Catholic Relief Services Sends Aid

July 21, 2011 - PRLog -- BALTIMORE, MD—A CRS team is on the ground in the Eastern Kenyan town of Dabaab, home to a sprawling refugee camp that sees some 1,300 people arrive each day from drought-stricken Somalia, only one of the countries in East Africa where hunger and the threat of malnutrition are the daily reality for 11 million people.

The United Nations officially declared a famine in parts of Somalia, the first such declaration in two decades, meaning it’s been determined that many are dying from a lack of food. These areas are plagued by a lack of security which severely limits humanitarian assistance.

Working with church partners through the region’s bishop, CRS has been able to get some aid into the stricken areas of Somalia. For families unable to access aid in Somalia, survival means walking across a harsh desert to camps like the one in Dadaab, in a region of Kenya that is also suffering under drought conditions.

CRS has been active in Kenya for decades with many programs that address agricultural and water needs and have helped mitigated the effect of the drought. But the severity of the drought, coupled with rising food prices, is overwhelming the ability of millions of people in East Africa to cope, CRS staff members in the region are reporting.

“Rains last fall failed completely,” explained CRS Africa Team Leader Brian Gleeson. “And spring rains earlier this year were erratic and weak. As a result, farmers have experienced horrible harvests and pastoralists are seeing their livestock dying off.”

This drought – it’s one of the driest years in the region since 1950-51 – has combined with increased food costs to put more than 11 million people across the Horn of Africa in need of humanitarian assistance. Many are in Somalia, though most are in Kenya and Ethiopia, countries where CRS has worked for decades.

Many CRS programs in these countries focus on water and agriculture, programs that have been  working to alleviate the growing drought conditions over the past several months.

In Ethiopia, the CRS-led Joint Emergency Operations Plan is ramping up; now feeding 400,000 people, it should reach 1 million later this month.

Other CRS staff, including the Nairobi-based Emergency Response Team, is working with Caritas International, government authorities and other partners to design further responses.

“This drought comes as prices for staple foods are increasing, in some cases more than doubling in the past year,” Gleeson said.

Many already spend a huge percentage of their income on food. A rise in prices pushes them over the edge.

“These price increases strike particularly hard in urban areas where people must purchase all their food,” Gleeson explained. “In non-drought conditions, rural farmers often benefit from rising food prices because they can sell their crops for higher prices. But right now they have no crops to sell due to the drought. So they and their families are also hurting.”

Gleeson said that the crisis will likely worsen before it eases with the October harvest.

“But many areas had very poor spring rains, so the harvest will not be enough,” he said. “And if the fall rains are not strong – or fail again – then this crisis is going to get much, much worse.”

How To Help

Donate by Phone
Call 1-800-736-3467 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time.

Donate by Mail
Mail your check or money order to:
Catholic Relief Services
Memo: East Africa Emergency Fund
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

Donate Online
http://www.crs.org/kenya/drought-endangers-millions-in-ea...

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Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. For more information, please visit http://www.crs.org or http://www.crsespanol.org.