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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Sara A. FajardoCatholic Relief Services, Nairobi,
Kenya
[email protected]
Michael Hill
Catholic Relief Services, Baltimore, MD
[email protected]
AS FAMINE DECLARED IN PARTS OF SOMALIA,
CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES SENDS AID
CRS team on the ground at Kenyan camp for Somali refugees,
providing aid through Somalia's Catholic bishop
BALTIMORE, MD, July 22, 2011A Catholic Relief Services team is
on the ground in the
Eastern Kenyan town of Dabaab, home to a sprawling refugee camp
that sees some 1,300
people arrive each day from drought-stricken Somalia, only one
of the countries in East Africa
where hunger and the threat of malnutrition are the daily
reality for 11 million people.
The United Nations officially declared a famine in parts of
Somalia, the first such declaration in
two decades, meaning its been determined that many are dying
from a lack of food. These
areas are plagued by a lack of security which severely limits
humanitarian assistance.
Working with church partners through the regions bishop, CRS has
been able to get some aid
into the stricken areas of Somalia. For families unable to
access aid in Somalia, survival means
walking across a harsh desert to camps like the one in Dadaab,
in a region of Kenya that is also
suffering under drought conditions.
CRS has been active in Kenya for decades with many programs that
address agricultural and
water needs and have helped mitigated the effect of the drought.
But the severity of the drought,
coupled with rising food prices, is overwhelming the ability of
millions of people in East Africa
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to cope, CRS staff members in the region are reporting.
Rains last fall failed completely, explained CRS Africa Team
Leader Brian Gleeson. And
spring rains earlier this year were erratic and weak. As a
result, farmers have experienced
horrible harvests and pastoralists are seeing their livestock
dying off.
This droughtits one of the driest years in the region since
1950-51has combined with
increased food costs to put more than 11 million people across
the Horn of Africa in need of
humanitarian assistance. Many are in Somalia, though most are in
Kenya and Ethiopia,
countries where CRS has worked for decades.
Many CRS programs in these countries focus on water and
agriculture, programs that have been
working to mitigate the growing drought conditions over the past
several months.
In Ethiopia, the CRS-led Joint Emergency Operations Plan is
ramping up; now feeding 400,000
people, it should reach 1 million later this month.
Other CRS staff, including the Nairobi-based Emergency Response
Team, is working with
Caritas International, government authorities and other partners
to design further responses.
This drought comes as prices for staple foods are increasing, in
some cases more than doubling
in the past year, Gleeson said.
Many already spend a huge percentage of their income on food. A
rise in prices pushes them
over the edge.
These price increases strike particularly hard in urban areas
where people must purchase all
their food, Gleeson explained. In non-drought conditions, rural
farmers often benefit from
rising food prices because they can sell their crops for higher
prices. But right now they have no
crops to sell due to the drought. So they and their families are
also hurting.
Gleeson said that the crisis will likely worsen before it eases
with the October harvest.
But many areas had very poor spring rains, so the harvest will
not be enough, he said. And if
the fall rains are not strongor fail againthen this crisis is
going to get much, much worse.
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How To Help
Donate by Phone
Call 1-800-736-3467 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
Donate by MailMail your check or money order to:
Catholic Relief ServicesMemo: East Africa Emergency Fund
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090
Donate Online
http://www.crs.org/kenya/drought-endangers-millions-in-east-africa/
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Catholic Relief Services is the official international
humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic
community. The agency provides assistance to people in more than
100 countries and territories
based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed. For
more information, please
visitwww.crs.orgorwww.crsespanol.org.
http://www.crs.org/kenya/drought-endangers-millions-in-east-africa/http://www.crs.org/kenya/drought-endangers-millions-in-east-africa/http://www.crs.org/http://www.crs.org/http://www.crs.org/http://www.crsespanol.org/http://www.crsespanol.org/http://www.crsespanol.org/http://www.crsespanol.org/http://www.crs.org/http://www.crs.org/kenya/drought-endangers-millions-in-east-africa/
