East Africa emergency appeal

Children in East Africa are starving. In some areas, a child is dying every 6 minutes reports Save the Children.

The worst drought in decades has wiped out livestock, crops and income in large parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia and left over 12 million people in the grip of a devastating food crisis.

The situation in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia is getting worse, with 6 million children facing starvation after severe drought lead to the devastation of income sources, failed harvests and the death of livestock. This year has been the driest since 1950, with food prices in some areas rising by 500 per cent.

In Somalia, 20 per cent of families have been left with no food whatsoever, with the number of malnourished children under five rising from 390,000 to 450,000 just within the last few weeks. More than 900,000 people have fled the country for overcrowded camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, whilst 1.5 million are displaced within the country itself.

We are rapidly providing life-saving food, water and medicine for children across the region, even in war-torn areas of Somalia where we are one of the few international organisations on the ground. We’ve launched one of our biggest ever emergency responses and we’ve already reached over 1 million people – and we’re aiming to reach 2 million in total. We are appealing for £65 million to urgently scale up our programmes across East Africa and reach more children and families before its too late. We are hoping to do this with our “Fill a truck” campaign, where we are asking supporters to help fill our trucks (pictured below). Each truck contains life saving food and supplies: enough to feed 4,000 children for a month.

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