GIFT giving helps drought victims

$30 includes t-shirt (specify size), cd, and 12oz Kenya Whole Bean Coffee!  The perfect gift for a coffee/music/world loving person on your list!  And it's already wrapped :) Email requests to theresadrought.relief@gmail.com

USAID: Rains hinder humanitarian response...

DROUGHT FACT SHEET #10 "The ongoing October-to-December heavy rains across southern Somalia, northern Kenya, and the Somali Region of Ethiopia continue to hinder humanitarian response activities in drought- and conflict-affected communities. During the week of November 28, the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service cancelled nearly all flights to the Dollo Ado refugee camps—where more than 138,400 refugees resided as of December 7—due to flooding at the airstrip. In addition, several roads to Dollo Ado remain impassable, delaying the delivery of humanitarian supplies..."

Africa's Drought Disaster

Melissa Doyle  visits sponsored child in Kenya - and shares this video report about the fight for survival .. "...it's difficult to understand how desperate the situation really is."

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/-/watch/26351754/africas-drought-disaster/

UNICEF EMERGENCY SUPPLY FLIGHT

"This is not a famine crisis, a drought crisis... this is a child survival crisis." UNICEF President and CEO, Caryl Stern. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge helped pack a shipment of emergency medial supplies at a UNICEF emergency supply center in Copenhagen to help "...perhaps put the light back on this crisis."  Despite having so little the people here celebrate what they do have... 

http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/2011/11/nightline.html

There's a Drought: Helping Africa One Song at a Time

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Somalia's Agony Tests Limits of Aid

“Americans are incredibly generous when they understand that children are in desperate need,” said Carolyn Miles, president of Save the Children. “If they knew millions of children were facing death in East Africa, I believe they would give. But I don't think Americans understand the scale of this disaster.”
NEW YORK TIMES Nov 1, 2011

Rains usher in "critical" period in Somalia's areas of famine

A key goal of the aid effort is to keep people in their homes. If they move to camps for more than six months, they are statistically very unlikely ever to return to their communities. That makes this planting season enormously important. Read more at...
Andrew Harting BBC News Oct 31, 2011

allAfrica.com: "Massive response showing some positive results but much more needs to be done..."

"We need to go the extra mile to reach all children and their families who need our help. The crisis is far from over, and will definitely continue well into 2012," said Elhadj As Sy, who is the UNICEF Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa crisis.

COMMEMORATING WORLD FOOD DAY

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/world_food_day_2011_usaid

"Every year on October 16, we have the opportunity to reflect on the devastating and persisting realities of hunger and undernutrition in our global community. Although it is a single day, World Food Day represents our year-round efforts to end hunger, alleviate suffering, and expand opportunity across the world..."

ANGELINA JOLIE speaks at the UN Oct 5

"How we continue to respond to this period of malnutrition and famine
is going to define the work of NGOs, governments and international organizations working in the Horn of Africa," said Jolie. "It will quite 
starkly determine whether a huge number of people live or die."  
Angelina Jolie
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/entertainment&id=8379830

YouTube: stories from September

Fatumo Farah is the director of the Netherlands-based development organisation HIRDA. She returns to Somalia to assess the situation of drought victims in the southern central part of the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSiD-ghlCAg

NYT - A Human Catastrophe: video from the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/09/24/opinion/sunday/100000001072009/worlds-worst-humanitarian-crisis.html?src=tp

More Aid Coming to African Drought Victims

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/More-Aid-Coming-to-African-Drought-Victims-130501598.html

African artists united in a call for action to break the recurring incidence of famine and extreme hunger in the Horn of Africa.

http://www.one.org/international/blog/african-artists-say-no-to-hunger/

"Somali exodus is growing fast..."

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4e1ff4b06.html

Un report - 3.2 million people are on the brink of starvation today

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39495&Cr=Horn+of+africa&Cr1=

Youssou N'Dour ... the situation in Somalia is a disaster

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14825393

UN warns of 750,000 deaths

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14785304

Statement by “UN Water” on World Water Day 2010

... the UN has warned that the situation in drought-stricken Somalia is deteriorating, and that almost all regions of the south could face famine.(BBC News 3 Sept 2011).

A statement from the UN emploring the global community to come together and address long-term water solutions world-wide:

Clean, safe, and adequate freshwater is vital to the survival of all living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems, communities and economies. But the quality of the world’s water is increasingly threatened as human populations grow, industrial and agricultural activities expand, and as climate change threatens to alter the global hydrologic cycle …

Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage and industrial and agricultural wastes are poured into the world’s waters … Every year, more people die from the consequences of unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war … Water contamination weakens or destroys natural ecosystems that support human health, food production, and biodiversity … Most polluted freshwater ends up in the oceans, damaging coastal areas and fisheries …

There is an urgent need for the global community –– both public and private sectors –– to join together to take on the challenge of protecting and improving the quality of water in our rivers, lakes, aquifers, and taps.

– From Statement by “UN Water” on World Water Day 2010

NPR: Desperation Grips Children in the Horn of Africa

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/26/139969318/desperation-grips-children-in-horn-of-africa

ONE: Crisis in the Horn of Africa

http://www.one.org/c/us/hottopic/3981/

UN sends in emergency aid team into Ethiopia

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39360&Cr=Somalia&Cr1=

NYTimes "...relief efforts are working, but more is needed..."

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/08/22/22climatewire-african-drought-victims-create-worlds-larges-97673.html

BBC: Turkish Prime Minister visits Mogadishu

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14588960

Drought Is 'Worst Humanitarian Crisis': U.N.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/10/somalia-drought-worst-humanitarian-crisis-_n_894072.html

Rohit Kachroo reports from Turkana

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/17/7394000-one-journalists-take-on-a-neglected-african-tragedy