Stamford, CT – AmeriCares
is preparing to send urgently needed medical aid to areas of East Africa
experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. AmeriCares also has
established an Africa Disaster Relief Fund to help direct critical resources to
this impoverished region.
The
United Nations this week officially declared two parts of Somalia, Bakool and
Lower Shabelle, to be in famine. Famine is declared when two adults or four
children per 10,000 people die of hunger each day and a third of children are
acutely malnourished. According to the U.N., in some areas of Somalia, six
people are dying per day and more than half the children are acutely
malnourished.
AmeriCares is planning to deliver aid to Somalia,
where hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are on the brink of
starvation. Thousands of refugees are making the treacherous journey to Kenya
daily on foot, walking through the desert for a week or more to get to
overcrowded refugee camps that offer their only hope of food, clean water and,
ultimately, survival. AmeriCares shipment of basic medicines
and medical supplies will help mobile medical teams serving the influx of
refugees into Mogadishu.
“The crisis is intensifying and, without assistance,
thousands of children will starve to death,” said Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares SVP
of Global Programs. “The medicines AmeriCares is delivering will save countless
lives and help to alleviate one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in a
generation.”
AmeriCares
has been aiding survivors of natural disasters, political conflict and extreme
poverty in Africa and around the world for nearly 30 years, saving lives and
restoring health and hope. AmeriCares has been delivering aid to East Africa
since the Ethiopia famine of 1985 that killed more than 1 million people.
