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UPDATED, DECEMBER 13: Thanks in part to ONE members, global leaders have stepped up and funded almost 80 percent of the need for emergency assistance in the Horn of Africa. Even with that, more than 30,000 children have died and 250,000 people currently face imminent risk of starvation. To address the current crisis, we are asking donors to quickly fill the $530 million in outstanding pledges they’ve made since July.
Children play outside makeshift shelters in Mogadishu. Photo credit: Phil Moore/Concern Worldwide
ONE is also asking global leaders to help prevent future food crises through investing in agriculture in the Horn of Africa and around the world. We ask donor countries to meet their L’Aquila commitments, contribute to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and expand their agriculture commitments beyond 2012. For example, the US government’s Feed the Future initiative is showing results and is helping to sustainably break the cycle of hunger and poverty in Kenya, Ethiopia and other countries around the world. And, we ask African governments to keep their Maputo and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) commitments to agriculture.
We know that in addition to raising their voices to build awareness and advocacy, many people want to make personal financial contributions to assist in the famine relief. While ONE doesn’t raise money from the public, there are organizations that are doing effective work on the ground in the Horn and who are actively soliciting donations. We have pulled together the following list of organizations so that you can learn more about them and consider making a donation.
International Organizations:
The African Future: TaF was established to improve the quality of life for the future of Africa. Their mission started in Somalia and is based on a model of working with locals through several programs cultivated from the needs expressed directly from aid recipients. Working in partnership with the Global Enrichment Foundation and Hope for Nations, TAF is currently executing food distribution in Somalia for 50,000 people.
American Jewish World Service: AJWS has a long-standing presence in East Africa and is working with international humanitarian organizations already on the ground to provide critical aid to refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities. AJWS has provided grants to community-based organizations such as Northern Aid and Women for Peace and Development Kenya.
American Refugee Committee: With a team of experienced staff in place, and an ongoing partnership with the Somali-American community, ARC is well positioned to coordinate rapid emergency response in affected areas of Somalia. They are currently constructing a water and sanitation system for 50,000 refugees who fled the famine and are now living in a refugee camp in Mogadishu called Rajo or Hope.
CARE: CARE is well-positioned in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia with experienced staff and longstanding linkages to affected communities and thus far has helped more than 1.7 million people. While CARE, along with the UN and other NGOs, has had to temporarily suspend some operations in the Daadab refugee camp due to security concerns, their essential humanitarian operations continue, including food, water, critical health and nutrition and some child protection services.
Catholic Relief Services: In Ethiopia, CRS is expanding its food distribution program to 1.1 million beneficiaries and is working closely with local partners to provide livelihood support, water and sanitation. In Somalia, CRS is supporting local partners to assist highly vulnerable, displaced families with basic necessities, such as food packages, support to clinics, therapeutic feeding and shelter. In Kenya, CRS is working both to assist newly arrived refugees with hygiene, sanitation promotion and protection, and also to provide water, sanitation and supplemental feeding to drought-affected Kenyan communities.
Church World Service: CWS is carrying out food distributions through local partners in Kenya’s Eastern Province and continues its “Water for Life” program to develop water resources in drought-affected areas of Kenya’s Rift Valley and Eastern Provinces. In the long term, CWS will initiate food and nutrition security and livelihoods efforts and permanent water initiatives that are part of the agency’s existing disaster risk reduction initiatives in Kenya.
Concern Worldwide: Working in the region for more than 25 years, Concern Worldwide is directly reaching more than 575,000 people in the Horn of Africa region with clean water, food and interventions to treat and prevent malnutrition. For instance, in Somalia, Concern and its local partners are reaching more than 100,000 people in worst-affected areas there.
International Committee of the Red Cross: The ICRC has worked to scale up its emergency operation in central and southern Somalia to assist an additional 1.1 million drought- and conflict-affected people. Working in partnership with the Somali Red Crescent Society, the ICRC has provided more than 800,000 people with food rations and opened 11 new outpatient therapeutic feeding programs and nine mobile health teams.
International Rescue Committee: The IRC — which has worked in East Africa since the 1990s and has been responding to the current drought for more than a year — has mobilized a multifaceted aid effort across the region providing a range of medical, health, protection and counseling services to refugees and communities throughout the region.
Islamic Relief: Islamic Relief has been working in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia for several decades and is collectively responding through their offices in East Africa to provide a wide range of services including food aid distributions to more than 540,000 people in Somalia and mobile health clinic services to an estimated 40,000 people in camps housing Somali refugees.
Mercy Corps: Mercy Corps teams in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are delivering assistance to more than 1 million people affected by the crisis, such as food and safe drinking water distribution, mobile health teams and assistance with livestock.
Oxfam America: Oxfam has launched a major humanitarian response in drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and aims to reach more than 3 million people with aid — meeting the most critical needs of those whose lives are at risk, while helping farming and herding communities protect their future on the land.
Save the Children: Save the Children has launched a major humanitarian response in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, feeding thousands of children, providing life-saving medical treatment, and getting clean water to remote communities. Save the Children is also helping communities adapt to more frequent droughts, reducing the number of children at risk in future food crises.
UNICEF: UNICEF has massively scaled up relief efforts to save children’s lives and protect their futures through delivering therapeutic foods to treat children suffering from severe malnutrition; providing life-saving vaccinations; improving access to clean water and proper sanitation; supporting basic education in communities and camps; and establishing measures to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse.
World Concern: World Concern is providing emergency food, water and supplies to approximately 10,000 of the most vulnerable and under-served people affected by the famine in a cross-border response in Kenya and southern Somalia.
World Food Programme: The WFP is providing food assistance for 7.8 million people in five countries and is working towards a target figure of 10.9 million. WFP is moving life-saving food and nutritional products by sea, air and rood into Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia to address hunger among the most vulnerable.
World Vision: World Vision is helping to save lives and sustain livelihoods through interventions including distributing therapeutic food especially for women and children (in partnership with the World Food Program), improving water and sanitation, supporting agriculture by providing seeds for farmers and food for livestock and promoting practices to make land more drought-resistant.
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