East Africa appeal hits £72m
2 min read6pm UK, Sunday October 16, 2011
British aid agencies have raised £72 million for drought victims in East Africa.
The Disasters Emergency Committee launched an appeal in July after Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the Republic Of South Sudan suffered one of the worst droughts in 60 years.
One hundred days since the appeal’s launch, the total raised is the third largest in the charity’s 45-year history.
Only the Asian tsunami (£392m) and the Haiti earthquake (£107m) raised more.
It comes as aid agencies warn the crisis is deepening for some of the 13 million East Africans hit by the drought.
World Food Day is being marked nearly three months after the United Nations declared a famine in parts of Africa.
The UK’s International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, said: "It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
"We’ve got to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future, as well as helping those who are at great risk today in the Horn Of Africa."
The Disasters Emergency Committee says the British government was among the first to respond to the crisis in East Africa.
Naomi Nakorudi’s baby daughter Kinyonga is among the millions needing aid, which she is receiving at Lodwar District Hospital, in Kenya’s poverty-stricken Turkana county.
"Before we came here, my child couldn’t eat," she said.
"Now if she sees someone else eating, she will eat. I’m pleased that my child is doing so well."
Children treated at the hospital receive high energy meals and have a chance of recovery.
But even before the region’s drought, 95% of the population in the poorest parts of Kenya lived in poverty – on less than a dollar a day. They are reliant on the land to feed the animals.
While schemes continue to help locals feed themselves, aid agencies insist the global response to their alert for East Africa has been slow.
http://news.sky.com/home/article/16089956
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