Drought Crisis in East Africa

Drought in East Africa: Your response needed

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Dear Friend, The International Rescue Committee is scaling up relief efforts to aid people devastated by the drought, the worst in 60 years, that is ravaging much of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The massive natural disaster has caused food shortages, decimated livestock and forced people to seek lifesaving aid in refugee camps. Many are arriving acutely malnourished, dehydrated and with nothing but the clothes on their back. With no signs of abating, this disaster will continue to inflict suffering on millions of innocent people, especially young children and the elderly. The IRC has long had expert teams in East Africa and we are well positioned to address this enormous set of challenges. Your donation will support our urgent relief efforts in the region. • In northeastern Kenya, the IRC is augmenting teams that provide new arrivals at the area’s refugee camp with medical screening, give fortified food to malnourished young children along with providing primary health care. • In Ethiopia, the IRC is trucking water and installing and expanding water supply systems in camps. • In central Somalia, the IRC is providing stop-gap water supplies to some 32,000 people, primarily women, children and the elderly who were left behind when the men of their communities left to find water and pasture for their livestock. • In the Turkana district of Kenya, the IRC and its aid partners are providing nutritional programs for 6,700 malnourished children under five, as well as 1,100 pregnant women. • The IRC also supports the efforts of the Kenyan government and the World Food Programme to deliver food where it is most needed. Your emergency donation now can mean the difference of life or death for many people. Please give generously. Sincerely, The International Rescue Committee		Photo: Sophia Jones-Mwangi/IRC Beniye Issa, 25, walked from Central Somalia holding her baby daughter Issa and traveling with seven other families. It took them 18 days. “We are herders and did a little farming,” she told me “but there hasn’t been rain now for two years and we haven’t been able to farm. That’s the reason why we came. We left nothing behind. My cattle died two months ago.” Beniye had to leave her husband behind to care for his sick father. Support the IRC’s emergency efforts to help people devastated by drought in East Africa.

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