August 18, 2011

With major drought response projects already underway in Kenya and Ethiopia, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is now reaching into Somalia to provide urgently needed food for an initial ten weeks. The project expands CRWRC's famine relief efforts to a total of 145,000 drought-affected people in the eastern Africa region, and equals US$9 million in emergency food distributions by the end of 2011.

CRWRC is working within Somalia among 10,800 people affected by crisis in partnership with World Concern, a Global Relief Alliance partner organization, which is also working to address wider needs such as water and sanitation, non-food items, and medical support. CRWRC has previously partnered with the agency in other critical disaster response efforts including activities in Chad, Burma/Myanmar, and Darfur, Sudan.

Somalis benefitting from CRWRC food assistance in the next few months are semi-nomadic herders and farmers as well as internally displaced people and their host families. In keeping with CRWRC's ministry to "the poorest of the poor," priority is given to those who are highly vulnerable – people living with HIV and AIDS, female-headed households, child-headed households, orphans, the elderly, those who are chronically ill, and those who are disabled.

The famine in Somalia continues to cause the migration of millions of hungry people looking for food. One quarter of the nation's 7.5 million people are now internally displaced, more than 3.7 million desperately need immediate humanitarian assistance, and hundreds of thousands have fled to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia in a last-ditch effort to survive.

CRWRC is seeking financial donations to support famine response in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Contributions can be made online at http://www.crwrc.org/eastafricadrought/, or by calling 1-800-55-CRWRC.

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee