Welcome to Baptist World Aid Australia

East Africa Famine

Background to the Crisis

The Horn of Africa has once again been struck by one of the most severe droughts since the 1950s, causing widespread hunger and endangering lives in countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

More than 13 million people are now affected and UNICEF estimates that 2 million of these are children, who are malnourished and in need of urgent assistance. Refugees from Somalia are leaving their homes in great numbers and crossing into Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food and a safe place to stay.


Baptist World Aid Australia’s Response

Baptist World Aid Australia is working with two partner organisations in our response to the famine crisis. Please pray with us for the work of these partners overseas, and for God's provision and comfort on those who are suffering.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

CRS are working inside Kambioos camp, a new refugee camp in the Dadaab area in Kenya, not far from the Somali border. Eventually, 90,000 refugees will be moved into this site.

  • CRS is helping develop and manage waste disposal and drainage infrastructure for 48,000 people, just over half of those who will live in this camp.
  • People from the local Dadaab community are being employed to construct latrines and showers in this new area, and
  • CRS staff will provide hygiene training and distribute hygiene kits to help minimise disease.

Ukamba Christian Community Services (UCCS)

UCCS are working with communities in four areas of southern Kenya. These areas have experienced long spells of drought and are currently experiencing a fourth season without a reasonable harvest, resulting in crop failure, weakened livestock and food and water shortages.
The project aims to meet the immediate needs of families in crisis, and will also work with communities in the longer-term to help them build their resilience to future shocks and droughts. The project is:

  • Supplying vulnerable households with maize, beans and cooking oil for a period of five months. This will provide food for up to 8000 individuals, including orphans, widows and the elderly.
  • Improving access to water for schools, by installing water tanks.
  • Facilitating agricultural recovery to ensure farms are prepared for the short rain season due in November. This will include training in improving water and soil conservation measures and building water catchment structures.


We thank God for the incredibly generous response we have recieved for our supporters with over $890,000 raised.

As of November 30, we will no longer be taking donations towards this appeal.

You can still give to our general Emergency Relief Fund. This fund allows us to respond to disasters immediately when they happen, and also provide assistane in small scale emergencies that do not make the news in Australia. 

 

References:

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/; http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39045&Cr=Horn+of+Africa&Cr1; http://www.unicef.org.au/Media/Media-Releases/July-2011/Situation-in-Horn-of-Africa-set-to-get-worse-for-m.aspx