The worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in six decades is currently affecting up to 10 million people. The United Nations describes the situation in the region as the most severe food security emergency in the world today, with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network warning that the response is “inadequate to prevent a further deterioration.” Levels of severe, acute malnutrition in this area, particularly among children, are also of great concern. The mix of drought, skyrocketing food prices, food shortages, and deaths of livestock in large numbers has combined to make this situation a devastating one for millions of people in the region.
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), the Anglican Church of Canada’s disaster relief and international development agency, is responding to the drought and famine. As a member of the ACT Alliance—a global coalition of 111 churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy—PWRDF will be working to address the needs identified by ACT members in the affected countries:
Kenya: Food distribution; supplementary feeding for nutrition targeting children, the elderly, and nursing mothers; and water supply are the needs during the crisis phase. Farmers will need seeds, fertilizers and livestock restocking for the recovery process.
Ethiopia: Food distribution; water supply—including the rehabilitation of water points and water harvesting; livestock restocking; and rehabilitation of pasture and growing of future animal feed.
Somalia: The Programme Coordinator for the Somali Refugee Program who was in the Dadaab refugee camp, which hosts 370,000 people and is currently receiving about 1300 new arrivals a day, communicated on July 13, “Here, things are changing by the hour and the situation has never been this bad.”
Donations to the relief effort can be made through the PWRDF website: www.pwrdf.org.
For more information, please contact:
Simon Chambers
Communications Coordinator
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
(416) 924-9199 ext. 366 (office)
1-866-308-7973 (toll free)
[email protected]
Naba Gurung
Humanitarian Response Coordinator
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
(416) 924-9199 ext.321 (office)
1-866-308-7973 (toll free)
[email protected]
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