East Africa Food Crisis: Donate Now

This is now the worst food crisis in the region of the 21st century, and the first time that famine has been declared in this region since at least 1992. Droughts and food crises have occurred regularly in recent years, but the current situation is particularly serious.

The UN declared famine in six regions of Somalia in the summer of 2011. Thanks to rains, a good harvest in river areas and effective humanitarian aid, the famine status was downgraded to ‘very critical food crisis’ in February, 2012. About 125,000 children no longer face severe malnutrition. However, Oxfam’s country director in Somalia says “the world should not turn its back on Somalia, solely because statistics say there is no longer a famine.”  The UN says 2.34 million Somalis remain in crisis.

In many areas emergency conditions are expected to persist well into 2012. Oxfam is there and, together, we need to provide immediate assistance before it's too late.

Oxfam is on the ground responding to the crisis

Oxfam needs your help to reach 3.5 million people with clean water, food and basic sanitation. With the donations we have received so far, we are already helping hundreds of thousands of people:

• Oxfam has reached 1.5 million people in Somalia with clean water, sanitation and public health promotion to prevent diseases like cholera and acute water diarrhea (AWD). 
   
• Oxfam partners are operating the single largest public health program in Somalia and providing clean water to tens of thousands displaced Somalis in camps outside Mogadishu.
   
• In Kenya, Oxfam has water, sanitation and hygiene programs reaching over 1.2 million people and is providing clean water to over 500,000 people in Dadaab, Kenya – the site of several refugee camps. 
   
• In Ethiopia, where Oxfam is delivering clean water, rehabilitating water points and distributing hygiene kits, over 425,000 people have been reached.  

Oxfam's humanitarian work has been ceaseless from the beginning of the crisis. Highlights from Oxfam's activities in the few first months of 2012, include:

Ethiopia

• Through the distribution of non-food item kits such as jerry cans, body soap, and laundry soap, along with home visits for hygiene education, Oxfam has already reached 1,506 households and counting. 

• In the Arero district 15,675 animals were given preventative treatments and sustenance. This ensures 791 rural households have long-term reliance on, what is often times, their sole form of livelihoods security. 

• 1,104 households in the Yabello, Dhas, Wachille and Arero districts have been involved in cash-for-work programs that in the end benefit their entire communities through activities such as bush clearing, pond rehabilitation and traditional well restoration. 

• Oxfam has provided 498,141 people with clean water and hygiene facilities through hygiene promotion, water infrastructure rehabilitation, distribution of goods such as jerry cans, bars of soap, chlorination tablets, and the construction of latrines and wells. 

• Targeting schools, internally displaced persons camps and host communities Oxfam has built 140 new latrines and over 10 new wells throughout Gedo, Mogadishu, Lower Juba and Lower Shabelle. 

• Over 4,000 households are benefitting from Cash for Work programs in Galguguud, Gedo, Hiran, Mogadishu, and Lower Shabelle. 

• In Dadaab, where the population is over 85,000 displaced people, Oxfam is offering much needed assistance in water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructures. This ensures the prevention diseases such as cholera. 

• 1,850,000 litres of water are delivered to the camps in Dadaab by pipelines and trucks. 

• 139 communities in Wajir have received cash transfers, to jump start their markets and feed a healthy economy from which the community can grow. 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE EAST AFRICA FOOD CRISIS FUND

The Situation

• This is now the worst food crisis in the region of the 21st century, and the first time that famine has been declared in this region since at least 1992.

• The crisis is worst in the triangle of south and central Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
   
• Other areas are also badly affected, such as Somaliland and parts of central Ethiopia. Parts of Uganda and Djibouti have also been affected by the drought.
   
• Hundreds of thousands of livestock have died, harvests have declined dramatically and the price of staple foods reached record levels in many areas. Many people have lost their livelihoods and it will take time to rebuild.

• The price of staple foods are at record levels in many areas, while at the same time the value of livestock – people’s main assets in many of the worst affected areas – has plummeted and livestock markets have collapsed, so people have much less purchasing power than before.

Estimated number of people in need of emergency humanitarian assistance

Kenya:              4.3 million (in Northern Kenya)
Ethiopia:           4.8 million (in West / South Ethiopia)
Somalia:           4 million
Djibouti:            200,000

(Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, December 16, 2011)
 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE EAST AFRICA FOOD CRISIS FUND

 
Oxfam installs a new water tank on the outskirts of an IFO camp at Dadaab.

Kenya

4.3 million people in Kenya are affected by the crisis – mainly in the southern agricultural areas and the northern pastoralist regions, such as Turkana and Wajir where Oxfam is working.

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Ethiopia

4.8 million people in Ethiopia are affected by the crisis. Oxfam is working in drought-hit parts of Borena and Somali regions, distributing cash and improving water supplies.

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Somalia

The situation in Somalia this year is the worst in the past 10 years. 4 million people are currently affected, as the drought worsens across Somalia. People are fleeing into Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti from the Bay, Bakol and Lower Shabelle regions. Children arriving from Somalia in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya are exhausted, malnourished and severely dehydrated.

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Recognizing the huge scale of need in East Africa and the need to work collectively to bring urgent assistance to disaster survivors, Oxfam Canada is proud to participate in the HUMANITARIAN COALITION. 

By joining our efforts the members of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION are able to save more lives and reduce the costs of fundraising.  To find out more click here.