Children Face New Dangers In East Africa Drought

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 24, 2011 -- Throughout the night, they queue at wells in Samburu, southern Kenya, as temperatures plummet causing a surge in pneumonia cases. A member of the Disasters Emergency Committee which has raised £37 million for the region, Plan is trucking food and water into some of the worst hit areas.

“The hunger situation in Kenya has continued to bite hard as Plan, government and other actors work round the clock to bring water, medicine and food to save the lives of thousands of children,” says Plan’s regional director Gez Kebede.

“Families’ survival is threatened by dying animals which leave them with little else to eat. Food prices have rocketed and you have to sell three goats to afford just one 90 kg bag of maize meal.

This is depleting resources of families with malnutrition, while water-borne diseases are taking their toll on children’s health.”

Child labour is also rising sharply as children desperate for food drop out of school and leave home in a bid to find work to earn enough to feed themselves.

Children dropping out of school are also at greater risk of abuse, neglect and health dangers including HIV AIDS, warns Mr Kebede.

A key aspect of Plan’s work will include child protection and emotional first-aid to help children through the crisis. And with 90 percent of schools reporting declining food supplies, distributing school meals will be a major part of Plan’s relief operation to help reduce drop-out levels.

Meanwhile, further north the situation is complicated by the influx of Somali pastoralists from Garba Tulla and neighbouring districts.

A scarcity of land and livestock has raised tensions between pastoralists and residents in Tharaka district, central Kenya.

“The situation has worsened with the government announcing that over four million people are relief dependent for the next several months,” says Mr Kebede. “The survival of thousands of people hangs in the balance - there is still too little water with children, especially those under-five, most at risk.”

Malnourished children are flocking into feeding centers in this forested corner of southern Ethiopia after a drought in East Africa extended into this normally fertile region.

While the famine in southern Somalia has grabbed headlines, southern Ethiopia is teetering on the brink of a food crisis. The Ethiopian government says 250,000 people need food aid amid what the U.N. says is the worst drought in 60 years.

More information can be found online at http://www.plan-uk.org/sponsor-a-child/east-africa

Africa Drought     child sponsorship