East Africa Emergency 2011
Countries in East Africa, including the Horn of Africa, were struck by severe drought in 2011, affecting the lives of some 13 million people. Combined with massively inflated food prices, people’s access to food and water was jeopardised. Conflict in Somalia also affected communities’ access to food, water, health and education services.
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World Vision Australia ceased calling for donations to the East Africa Emergency Appeal in May 2012. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters in response to the drought and food crisis affecting the region.
We thank our supporters for their amazing response to this humanitarian disaster.
For details on World Vision’s response during the first year, see our updates posted below.
If you would like to support World Vision Australia to prepare for other emergencies around the world, please make a donation to our
Emergency & Preparedness Fund. This enables World Vision to pre-stock and position life-saving supplies, and ensures trained staff can be on the scene quickly when emergencies occur in developing countries.
World Vision response
World Vision commenced a relief response in early July 2011 to address the immediate needs of vulnerable communities affected by drought. The organisation’s development work also supports communities to cope in the short term and build greater resilience to such events.
World Vision aims to reach some 2.5 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania in its emergency response from July 2011 until July 2012. Assisted people are from within World Vision supported areas, in neighbouring communities and in refugee and displaced peoples’ camps.
World Vision's emergency work, which has helped 1.5million people so far (at 6 month mark), includes a variety of activities across the four countries, such as:
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Food distributions for pregnant and lactating mothers, children, elderly and other vulnerable groups;
- Food-for-Work (people contribute to projects that benefit their community in exchange for food);
- Assessment, monitoring and treatment of malnourished children;
- Health checks, immunisations, maternal and child health care, mobile health clinics, health worker training;
- Water trucking (short term) then water borehole drilling; construction of water points and toilets;
- Installation of water tanks at health clinics and primary schools;
- Distribution of fuel efficient stoves to minimise cutting of trees for fuel;
- Distribution of seeds, seedlings and tools to farmers;
- Distribution of livestock to pastoralists, de-worming and other veterinarian support to animals;Small business training for women;
- Distribution of relief items (mosquito nets, cooking sets, hygiene kits, tarpaulins) to 30,000 Somali refugees;
- Training of child protection officers in communities;
- Peace committees and peace promotion meetings reached 100,000 people in Kenya;
- Establishment of Child Friendly Spaces.
World Vision has a long-term ongoing presence in many of the affected areas, and part of its programming looks at building community resilience to deal with adverse situations.
Current and Future Work
World Vision’s long-term development programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania will continue to focus on disaster risk reduction and building creating greater resilience in communities. World Vision, internationally, will continue to lobby and call on donors, the UN, governments and key stakeholders to bring about change for the most vulnerable people in East Africa.
Background information
The Horn of Africa has been repeatedly hit by drought over recent years. Poor rainfall across the region in 2010/2011, combined with massively inflated food prices, affected some 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa and also in Tanzania, East Africa. Communities in Somalia were also impacted by conflict. The number of people severely affected by drought and hunger catapulted from 7 million in March 2011 to approximately 13 million by September 2011.
The United Nations declared ‘famine’ in 6 regions of Somalia (over a period of a few months) including the capital Moghadishu, and the regions of Afgooye (outside the capital), Bakool, Bay, Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle.
Malnutrition rose, exceeding global emergency malnutrition rates. Many communities were forced to move away from the worst-affected areas looking for better opportunities. As families and communities travelled long distances in search of food, the risks of a disease outbreak increased. School dropout rates also increased following the migration of households in search of water and pasture.
With low rainfall, food became increasingly scarce. Crop yields were down, and large numbers of livestock died. Pastoralists, poor households, and children were among the most affected. In some areas, cereal prices increased to nearly 2.5 times what they were on the previous year.
Consecutive droughts in recent years eroded the coping mechanisms of communities across the region. With the 2011 wet season producing as little as a fifth of the normal rainfall, the situation became what the UN’s emergency head described as “the most severe food crisis in the world today”.
World Vision has been working in East Africa for more than 40 years. Emergency programmes began in Ethiopia in 1971, with development activities following. Work in Kenya began in 1974, with the first World Vision activities beginning in Somalia in 1992.
Children sponsored by Australians
There are no reports of children sponsored by Australians being adversely affected by the drought in Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania. Please be assured that if we receive information of concern regarding children we contact sponsors immediately. There are no sponsorship programmes in Somalia.
How you can help
We thank our supporters for their amazing response to this humanitarian disaster, which allowed World Vision to support children and their communities from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. The overwhelming generosity of our supporters allowed us to contribute significantly to the organisation’s global response therefore World Vision Australia has closed its East Africa Emergency Appeal.
If you would like to support World Vision Australia to prepare for other emergencies around the world, please make a donation to our
Emergency & Preparedness Fund. This enables World Vision to pre-stock and position life-saving supplies, and ensures trained staff can be on the scene quickly when emergencies occur in developing countries.
Been thinking about
sponsoring a child? Children and their communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania benefit from sponsorship, with select programs working to create a greater resilience to disasters.