SOUNDING THE ALARM
UNICEF IN EAST AFRICA
UNICEF has a long history of working for children and families in countries across the eastern peninsula of Africa, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Kenya. We’re there every day, working with local partners and governments, sharing and solutions we’ve proved can work.
Currently these countries are in the grip of the worst drought in 40 years – driven by climate change. We’re working hard to make sure children can access clean water, quality education, health care, and supplying life-saving food for malnourished children.
Measuring the growing threat
The rains have failed for three consecutive seasons and in response UNICEF has expanded and intensified our work.
And as UNICEF expert Mohamed Fall tells us, families “are also living through the far-reaching repercussion of the Ukraine conflict, which is impacting on wheat prices”.
Somalia alone relied on Ukraine for 92% of its wheat but supply lines are now blocked. The war is exacerbating soaring global food and fuel prices, meaning many people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia can no longer afford the food they need to survive.
"We are talking about 20 million people whose lives are now threatened by food insecurity. It has become one of the most important humanitarian crises.”
Mohamed Fall sounds the alarm.
UNICEF at Work
Treating malnutrition
In the first half of 2022, UNICEF had admitted and treated more than 186,500 malnourished young children with severe acute malnutrition in Somalia.
UNICEF is the main supplier of ready-to-use therapeutic food needed to treat severely malnourished children. It can be given on diagnosis at outpatient centres, is easy to store and eat, and children love the taste. Full of nutrients and energy, this fortified peanut, oil and sugar combo is enough to help extremely vulnerable children recover and resist other diseases. UNICEF also supplies life-protecting vaccines, worming treatments and vitamin A to boost children’s defences. Very malnourished children easily succumb to other diseases or conditions and we help them get treatment in hospital if they need it.
Bringing water to the surface
UNICEF helped provide clean water to almost 594,000 people in Ethiopia’s drought-hit areas. In Somalia, we provided emergency water services for over 709,000 people.
We repair or upgrade water supply systems, provide water purification supplies, and deliver clean water in trucks. Children in arid Garowe, in the Puntland region of Somalia, now get clean water pumped by solar power and stored in a weather-resistant water tower. Families depend on their livestock for food and income, so UNICEF built a separate water point for the herds to drink from, protecting the community’s health. The community now manages the whole system, selling water affordably to other herders to pay for the maintenance.
Learning, for a future
This year UNICEF helped 119,686 vulnerable children (including 46 per cent girls) get access to primary education in Somalia.
In Ethiopia, over 117,000 children continued to be reached through the provision of formal or non-formal education across emergency-affected regions.
The drought has forced huge numbers of people to move in search of water, food and healthcare. UNICEF supports schools to accommodate extra children whether they arrive in existing communities or in camps for displaced people. We supplied classroom materials, clean water and sanitation facilities in schools, extra training for teachers and help with teachers’ salaries. We are making sure children can continue learning so that drought does not rob them of their education, and their futures.
We know what is needed
It’s expected that around 2 million children across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya now need critical treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
We are gathering and assessing the information for everyone to understand the scale of the crisis. We prepositioned supplies and strengthened our teams to cope with the growing numbers of children and families caught in this drought.
We co-ordinate support for water and sanitation and therapeutic food across the region, working to deliver to the maximum amid rising energy and food costs.
Thanks to support from gifts made in Wills and other donations, we are equipped to support children and families as crises like this unfold, helping us to deliver life-saving support while we secure furthering. Gifts in Wills are among the most effective of all our funding because they allow us to respond to any crisis for children in any country.
They also allow us to stay when the headlines move on and to respond to the emergencies that never receive any attention.
