Christian Aid recently launched an emergency appeal for East Africa where the United Nations reports that 11 million people are at risk of starvation in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Djibouti.
“This is a crisis on the verge of becoming a catastrophe,” said Domimic Nutt, Christian Aid’s emergencies specialist in the region, in a report by Christian Aid on Monday. “There are dead cattle everywhere and people have sold everything they have to buy food. These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help.”
In response to the crisis, Christian Aid is working with partners across East Africa in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Tanzania to provide immediate aid including funding water tankers that provide up to 52,000 liters of water a day to vulnerable communities, distributing and providing clean water.
Norwegian Church Aid along with four other members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) is also responding to the situation in Kenya and issued an appeal for $2.4 million to its members worldwide on Feb. 2 to fund the Kenyan members’ response. NCA and partners are helping to provide drought affected communities with access to water and finding better ways to grow crops in order to help the communities lessen the effects of the current and future droughts.Church World Service, one of the members of the global alliance ACT, joined the effort to provide immediate food and water needs in the most affected communities, help in food distribution, providing water tankering for domestic and livestock use, and borehole drilling and repair in Kenya.
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), meanwhile, has donated $434,000 in support of the emergency relief response in Kenya. The funds will be used to feed the most vulnerable – children, women, the elderly and the chronically ill.
“Food, water and humanitarian aid must reach those affected by the crisis urgently if we are to prevent widespread starvation,” concluded Christian Aid.
Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent
