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Emergencies

As the world approaches the 25th anniversary of the 1984 East African famine, a new crisis is looming in East Africa.  A deadly combination of crop failures, year-on-year droughts, the effects of climate change, conflicts and political turmoil are affecting millions of people across the region.

In any emergency, children are the first to suffer and across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia we are seeing the rates of child malnutrition rise.  Without emergency food aid many children will become malnourished and without enough food their immune systems will become severely weakened making them more likely to die from preventable diseases. 

Somalia 

Somalia is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in almost two decades. There has been internal conflict in Somalia for 18 years which has caused huge levels of displacement within and outside of the country. On top of this, endemic poverty, recurrent droughts and flooding have created a highly complex emergency. 

After five years of failed rains, Somalia now faces a severe food crisis as crops have failed and livestock are dying. Children are paying the price of this crisis and malnutrition rates are alarmingly high with one in five Somali children now malnourished. Currently, 3.76 million people in Somalia (half the population) urgently need life-saving and emergency livelihood support – this is a 17.5% increase in a year.

Save the Children has been present in Somalia since 1992, implementing both long and short-term programmes focusing primarily on education and emergency support for vulnerable populations.  We are now scaling up our programmes to reach the growing numbers of people affected by the crisis. We will be delivering cash grants to highly vulnerable urban households who are currently unable to cover the essential needs of their children, including both food and non-food needs. Save the Children will reach nearly 2,500 families, more than 17,000 people.

Ethiopia 

Ethiopia has also seen the failure of its 2008 seasonal harvest. Coupled with sharp increases in the price of staple foods, this has resulted in 6.4 million Ethiopians needing emergency food assistance of which approximately 50% are children. This figure is in addition to the 7.5 million people who already receive food aid through the Government’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP).

At present there is currently a shortfall of 125 000 Metric tonnes ($89 million) of food needed to reach these families. Those affected by the ongoing food crisis, in particular children, are most vulnerable to contracting acute watery diarrhoea which is occurring across the country. 

Save the Children has continued supporting the most vulnerable communities in Ethiopia. We are now scaling up our response to meet the worsening situation through relief food distributions, emergency nutrition programmes, emergency health and livelihood programmes and educating communities to help reduce cases of disease. In Boqolmayo refugee camp Save the Children is providing emergency education for 4545 children and has plans to introduce formal primary education. We have identified over 600 unaccompanied children. The children are receiving psychosocial counselling, health and nutrition support where applicable.  Save the Children are considering family tracing should additional funds become available.
Find out more about Save the Children's work in Ethiopia

Kenya 

Four consecutive years of poor rain and drought has taken its toll on people living in the north east of Kenya.

Devastating crop failures has cut maize supplies by almost a third, this has meant that the price of maize flour, the staple food of most Kenyans has more than doubled in just over a year. In addition, severe water shortages across north east Kenya are forcing people to walk an average of 45-55km to reach water or land to graze their livestock. As a result, 10 million people are without enough to eat and 3.8 million Kenyans are in need of emergency food aid.

Save the Children is scaling up its programmes in the Mandera and Wajir districts in the north east of Kenya, where we work with communities which are largely reliant on pastoralist livelihoods and are particularly vulnerable to droughts and food insecurity.  We are also still working in Dadaab to provide relief to those living in the overcrowded refugee camps.

With your support 

The erratic weather patterns over the last five years in East Africa with consecutive poor or failed rains indicate a changing climate. 

Whilst drought is cyclical in many parts of East Africa, the prolonged periods of drought is severely limiting the ability of many communities to be able to provide for themselves. Save the Children is providing life saving interventions to the most affected communities. At present we are focussing our fundraising efforts on Kenya and we urgently need funds to enable us to carry on reaching the most vulnerable children and scale up our responses in areas where the situation is continuing to deteriorate.

If you would like to donate to Save the Children please select your national organisation from the list below, or visit Save the Children UK Website. Your donation will enable us to reach more children.

More Information

Eye Witness Accounts
Voices from Kenya: Aftin - Living in the scorching sun
Voices from Kenya: Fatuma - Surviving on one meal a day
Voices from Ethiopia: Addis, Maritu, Adnis and Tiru - There isn't enough
Video: Kenya Crisis Appeal
Voices from Kenya: Anne McClure's Blog - Getting out of Nairobi (10 November 2009)
Video: Abdullahi's story

Press Releases
Children in Somalia face unprecedented danger as food shortages and fierce fighting deliver double blow (18 September 2009)
Three Million Children in Ethiopia Urgently Need Food amid Worst Crisis in Decades (24 September)
Two million Kenyan children in urgent need of emergency food (23 October 2009)
Children in Ethiopia struggle to be free from legacy of hunger (26 October 2009)