Horn of Africa crisis: ALWS launches urgent appeal

Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) has launched an urgent appeal in response to the famine crisis on the Horn of Africa, where 3.2 million people urgently require life-saving aid. Each day 1300 people are arriving in refugee camps. On average they have walked for 1000 kilometres or for 15 days. Eighty per cent of them are women and children. Fifty per cent of the children are suffering from malnutrition. The child fatality rate is six times above average.

In total, 11.5 million people are believed to be at risk. In a statement following an emergency summit in Rome with delegates, Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General for the United Nations, declared the crisis an emergency and has called for worldwide help for aid.

'Pastoralist communities are the most vulnerable, with women and children on the front line. Providing accessible nutrition must be our top priority', said Mr Moon.

Lutheran teams are already on site and are responsible for the coordination of the three main camps at Dadaab in north-east Kenya (near the border with Somalia), organising day-to-day activities, distribution of aid supplies, communication between aid organisations and refugees, and managing the discussion on the emergency response.

Lutheran teams are also active in Ethiopia and north-west Kenya, where drought is having a severe impact on rural communities.

‘Australian and Kiwi Lutheran support is urgently needed to provide life-saving care at both Dadaab and Kakuma, and across this whole region of Africa’, said Jonathan Krause, manager of communications for ALWS.

ALWS is coordinating their appeal activities with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and ACT Alliance (ACT), a worldwide alliance of 111 churches and church-related organisation devoted to humanitarian aid and development. The LWF has drawn upon its 2011 planned program to respond to this crisis but it is drastically underfunded to cope with the scale of the crisis.

This desperate situation has arisen due to the continued drought in Somalia, the worst in 60 years, as well as in Ethiopia and Kenya. Failing crops, livestock mortality and high local cereal prices are the main factors adversely affecting rural communities and forcing farmers and agricultural workers to flee. Annual rains are not expected for another four months.

Although the city is still severely damaged after years of fighting, desperate farmers and agricultural workers are fleeing to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to seek urgent humanitarian assistance, as well as crossing the borders into Kenya and Ethiopia.

‘Water is a big challenge … People have to walk long distances and wait for more than two hours in line to fetch water’, said Lennart Hernander, representative for LWF’s Department for World Service operation for Kenya-Djibouti.

Donations are desperately sought to assist in the Lutheran effort. $156 can buy 100 kilograms of porridge flour, which will provide 1428 meals. $22 will provide clothes, sleeping mats and cooking utensils for foster families caring for unaccompanied children. $2736 will provide supplementary water to a camp for one week, enough water for 120,000 people.

But even in this most desperate of crises the beauty of the human spirit is not forsaken. ‘Old refugees and host community members have made collections, and it is humbling to see how those who have little share what they have with those who have nothing’, said Hernander.

Australian and New Zealand Lutherans are invited to urgently support this appeal by donating online at www.alws.org.au