FAMINE in SOMALIA: How to HELP- List & Links

It takes 2 minutes to help save a life.
These people are starving, wandering, homeless and in deep despair.
                                                                                                                                                    
Realize you can make a difference to help end their suffering. 

Updated- September 20, 2011-                                                                                                                                                           Click on the links below. Starvation – Please be part of the solution.                                                                         

A severe drought is affecting the horn of Africa.  Over than 13 million people require food assistance due to the region’s worst drought in half a century, the United Nations and other sources say. It has caused a food crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The UN says nearly half of the Somali population — 3.7 million people — are now in crisis.

Below are links to some key organizations providing aid in the region.

World Concern found this Somali mother and baby far from home at a transit camp.

• World Concern is an international humanitarian organization providing disaster response and community development in some of the world’s most challenging places. They have worked Eastern Kenya and Somalia for many years an responding to this crisis with life saving aid – water, food, emergency supplies and more. Donate online.  

World Concern at Dadaab Camp, Kenya

• Samaritan’s Purse The organization says it sent a team that includes relief and nutrition specialists to northeast Kenya to lead the emergency response. SP has also set up a base of operations in Garissa, Kenya, along the Kenya/Somalia border, and have begun distributing tons of maize, beans, and cooking oil. Donate online. 
• Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions  The organization has a special focus on the crisis in Somalia a special food supplement called Plumpy’nut®. According to their website in 4-6 weeks, a child can be transformed from near death to certain survival Plumpy’nut®   is a ready-to-use theraputic food, endorsed by Unicef and the World Health Organization, and is proven to treat severe acute malnutrition with high success. It is an energy-dense paste with a 2 year shelf life made with peanuts, milk powder, sugar, veg oils and a fortified vitamin- mineral mixture. Make donations online.

• UNICEF  the UN’s children’s organization, and its partners need more money to aid children in the Horn of Africa in the coming months. Immediate measures include child immunization campaigns and water and sanitation services to ward off disease.
  Text FOOD to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10, enough to feed a child for 10 days or provide 321 sachets of nutrient powder to boost infant survival and development, the aid group says.
• International Committee of the Red Cross
  Red Cross has launched the East Africa Drought Appeal 2011 to provide emergency relief, including food, water and health assistance.
  Make donations online at www.redcross.org.au or by calling 1-800-HELPNOW.
• Doctors Without Borders
  In Dadaab, Kenya, Doctors Without Borders says it is treating more than 2,400 children in its ambulatory therapeutic feeding program and 130 children in its inpatient therapeutic feeding center. An additional 5,047 children with moderate acute malnutrition are enrolled in a supplementary feeding program. There are now around 10,000 people in the organization’s feeding program in the Dadaab camp.
  Donate here or by calling 1-888-392-0392.
• Save the Children 
  Save the Children has launched an effort in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia to feed underweight children, provide medical treatment and get clean water to remote communities. Click here for ways to give.
• The World Food Programme The World Food Programme said it is reaching 1.5 million people in Somalia now, and is scaling up to reach 2.2 million more in the previously inaccessible south of the country. It says airlifts to Mogadishu will start within a few days to bring in special nutritious foods for malnourished children.
  Donate $10 by texting the word AID to 27722 or make a donation online
• World Vision World Vision says it has been fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa for years and will continue to provide food, clean water, agricultural support, health care and other vital assistance to children and families. Donate online.
• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee The organization says it is providing $7 million in emergency food supplies, water and fodder for livestock in five high-risk locations in Kenya and in southern Ethiopia. Donate online.
• Church World Service CWS says it is working on a response centered on the Mwingi and Kibwezi areas of Kenya by providing emergency food relief, water tankering and long-term disaster risk reduction programs. Donate online.
• The International Rescue Committee In drought-wracked central Somalia, the International Rescue Committee is giving cash and other assistance to households whose livestock, pastures and farmland have been destroyed. In Kenya’s refugee camps, the organization says, it is providing medical screenings and referrals for new arrivals at reception centers where they also receive food and basic supplies. Donate online.
• Oxfam International Oxfam said it is responding to the crisis by providing water, sanitation services, food and cash. The aim is to reach at least 3 million people, including 700,000 in Ethiopia, 1.3 million in Kenya, and 500,000 in Somalia. Donate online.
• International Medical Corps
  International Medical Corps teams have been delivering health care services to people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya since 1991 and are working rapidly to provide humanitarian relief to victims of drought and famine in the region. Donate online.
• AmeriCares
  AmeriCares said it is preparing to send medical aid to areas of East Africa experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. The organization has also established an Africa Disaster Relief Fund to help direct critical resources to the region. Donate online.
• Action Against Hunger The organization said it’s providing support for displaced and at-risk populations, treating acute malnutrition, and ensuring emergency access to clean water, improved sanitation, and hygiene programs for thousands of children and adults. Donate online or call 877-777-1420.
• ActionAid ActionAid said it has already reached more than 200,000 people with emergency food supplies, water and livelihood support. In the next few months, the organization aims to reach an additional 120,000 people with much-need food and water. Donate online.
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency
  According to the organization, the aid it’s providing includes emergency water trucking, distribution of shelter materials, repair and construction of boreholes, distribution of food rations, and in Kenya special rations to 300 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Donate online.
• American Friends Service Committee 
  The organization says it is working in the Dadaab refugee camp on the Somalia-Kenya border and with local partners inside Somalia to support lasting peace efforts. Donate online. 
• American Jewish World Service The organization says it will be partnering with other organizations to ensure that aid is distributed to those who are most in need. Over the long term, AJWS will be working with its partners to address the underlying systemic causes of this crisis. Donate online.
• American Refugee Committee
  The organization says it’s working closely to provide life-saving relief to those in need, providing food aid and non-food items such as bedding, utensils and soap to more than 400 families. Donate online.
• Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT)
  AMURT  says it is performing assessments in Northern Kenya to better serve the affected communities. Call 301-738-7122 for donations. http://www.amurt.us/index.html
• Baptist World Alliance
  The organization says it’s working with its members in Ethiopia and Kenya to formulate an adequate drought response. Donate online.
• Catholic Relief Services CRS says it is increasing its food distributionsfrom 400,000 people to 1 million people in Ethiopia. The organization also says it has an assessment team in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya and is preparing 9,500 kits with plastic sheeting & jerry cans for immediate distribution. Call 1-800-736-3467 or donateonline.
• CHF International CHF says it is responding to the crisis in the Horn of Africa through its country offices in Ethiopia and Kenya by providing continued emergency water support and other forms of aid. Donate online.
• ChildFund International ChildFund says it is targeting its drought-relief efforts on children five and younger and their mothers, who are most at risk for nutritional deficiencies. The organization has partnerships with the World Food Programme and UNICEF. Donate online.
• CONCERN Worldwide Concern says it is reaching 400,000 in the affected regions with clean water, food and nutritional care. In Somalia, the organization says it’s reaching more than 100,000 people. Donate online.
• Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) From Uganda to Southern Somalia, through Kenya, ACTED says its teams are operating every day to ensure access to potable water and sanitation in order to improve the vulnerable populations’ food security. Donate online.
• HelpAge USA HelpAge says it’s distributing food, water and healthcare to older people and their families, as well as water, animal feed and veterinary care for livestock. Donate online.
• Helping Hand for Relief and Development The organization says it has planned sending emergency aid, which includes providing basic sanitation and providing camps for internally displaced persons. Donate online.
• International Orthodox Christian Charities Through its emergency healthcare partners, IOCC says it’s putting nursing and public healthcare specialists into action to aid victims of the massive humanitarian crisis. The organization is also delivering financial assistance to provide critically needed healthcare support for millions of people. Donate online.
• International Relief & Development IRD says its staff is working to design an emergency response focused on supplemental feedings. Donateonline.                
• Lutheran World Relief LWR says it has committed an initial $500,000 to its partners operating in the Dadaab camps to assist new arrivals. Donate online.
• Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin) Merlin says it is providing nutrition and health services to those affected. Donate online.
• Mercy Corps
  The global humanitarian agency is responding to the drought in the Horn of Africa with emergency operations in northeastern Kenya, and plans to build on existing work in hard-hit Ethiopia & Somalia. We will focus our efforts on the most vulnerable people in villages & towns.
  Mercy Corps is currently helping 150,000 people through programs like emergency food distributions, clean water delivery and cash-for-work activities in this area.
  Want to help? Click here to donate.
• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) UNHCR is already scaling up work on the ground, providing medical care and food. Donate online. 
  $7: provides ready-to-use therapeutic food for a malnourished refugee child
  $50: therapeutic feeding kits – each one helps feed five children
  $100: survival kits – each has a blanket, mattress, kitchen set, stove and soap
  $450: all-weather tent to shelter a refugee family
  $5,500: nutrition survey kit, includes weighing scales (x5), height measuring board, hammock machine and accessories (micro-cuvettes, lancet, etc.), and mid upper arm circumference tape.
• Global Enrichment Foundation  The Global Enrichment Foundation, Hope for the Nations, and The African Future say they delivered the first convoy of emergency food aid on Aug. 4, 2011 in Dhoobley, Somalia, feeding 14,000. The food baskets distributed fed a family of five for two weeks. A second convoy is being organized for late August. Donateonline.
• CARE
  The organization says it is providing food, water and primary education in the Dadaab refugee camps. Call 1-800-521-2273 or donate online. 

Source: NBC Nightly News and MSNBC.com among others