East Africa Famine: Where your money goes

Since our Emergency Relief Programme got underway across the Horn of Africa last July, SOS Children has helped save lives and improve living conditions for more than 70,000 of the worst-affected victims of famine, through the provision of medical services, food, water and other essential supplies.

Kenya

In Marsabit, Kenya, 3,000 children who risked starvation last July have since been fed every day by the SOS School Feeding Programme. Regular delivery of drinking water is provided to schools and villages. Local health services are also supported by SOS Children through free drugs and supplies.

What’s next: SOS Children Family Strengthening Programmes are due to be expanded in Marsabit. Support provided to local medical facilities is likely to continue.

Ethiopia

SOS Children continues to distribute food regularly in Gode, Ethiopia. The heaviest rains for 14 years have led to recent flooding in parts of the region. The Shebelle River burst its banks damaging homes and recently planted crops. Drinking water has also been contaminated in many areas; waterborne diseases are also a cause of concern.

What’s next: The success of income-generation activities among families in Gode is likely to reduce the need for long-term food distribution.

Somalia

Emergency medical services are being provided at camps for displaced people in Somalia, in the capital Mogadishu and in the Bay region of southern Somalia. Therapeutic feeding programmes have saved the lives of thousands of children and mothers who also receive vaccines and treatment for conditions such as diarrhoea, measles and malaria.

Approximately 7,300 people are being treated by SOS medical staff every month at Badbado camp, Mogadishu. The recently opened ‘Child-Friendly Spaces Project’ in the camp provides psychological support and fun for 150 children. 
In southern Somalia 1,500 people have received medical services over the past month. Food was distributed to 2,500 of the worst-affected women and children in villages north of Baidoa, such as Labatan Jirow and Good Guddud.

What’s next: SOS Children’s work in the displaced persons’ camps in Mogadishu will continue over coming months. An expected small-scale food harvest in February should mark the beginning of the rehabilitation phase. But some areas across the country will need emergency help until a bigger-scale food harvest in September. Security permitting, medical services are to be expanded in southern Somalia.

How far your money goes

• £48 provides a 1.5 months’ supply of therapeutic nutritional products to nurse a severely malnourished child back to health.
• £40 can buy a monthly supply of (culturally appropriate) food for a family of six.
• £190 a month will help up to four mothers a day to give birth under the professional care of a trained midwife. 
• £950 pays the monthly salary of a paediatrician; £1,250 pays the monthly salary of an obstetrician/gynaecologist. 

How you can help

You can make a one-off donation directly to our Emergency Relief Programme in Somalia, or take out a child sponsorship to help us to focus on the long-term welfare of children who have no one to care for them as a result of the famine.