Please help East African famine victims: online

Right in the middle of the increasing humanitarian crisis in the horn of Africa you will find SOS Children working where we have been working for decades. As always, we are there before the crisis starts, and still there long after the TV cameras have gone home:

• We run programmes to keep families together in Somaliland, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, North and South Sudan. These Family Strengthening Programmes start with an analysis of why children are alone (maternal death, AIDS, poverty) and target programmes to address the main issues.
• We run the only obstetrics hospital in Mogadishu
• We run schools in Somalia, schools in Kenya, schools in Ethiopia
  
• In Ethiopia alone we have five Children's Villages
  
• Throughout East Africa we have a dozen Children's Villages, all of which are community hubs helping the surrounding area.

We act whenever we see famine, poverty or disease threaten children's chances to grow up with a mother's love; we act to help, not just during the headline period but until the risk has gone.

Emergency Relief for Somalia

Recently, a team from SOS Somalia conducted a rapid assessment of the emergency humanitarian needs of the families displaced by drought from the Agro-pastoral areas to Mogadishu. Our colleagues have reported that most of the children and elderly in the displaced camps are malnourished, and most children have not been vaccinated against immunizable diseases. They say there is a 'complete lack' of healthcare as well as major food insecurity.

Given the desperate nature of the situation, SOS Children plan to launch an Emergency Relief Programme in the coming days. In and around the Dharkenley refugee camp in Mogadishu, we plan to:

• Establish a therapeutic feeding centre
• Provide food packages and food vouchers
• Establish an immunization centre
  
• Address the crucial constraints of the healthcare services for the displaced population by establishing a mobile health clinic
  
• Provide play materials for children to address psychosocial needs
  
• Provide referral services to SOS Hospital for patients

We are also planning Emergency Relief Programmes in Ethiopia in the Gode region, and in Marsabit, Northern Kenya.

If you want to help orphaned children in the midst of a famine to have the chance to grow up in a family with a future, then please sponsor a child or make a regular donation to SOS Children. Read more about our emergency relief plans.