26th July, 2011
In response to the severe drought that is being experienced in the Horn Africa, AMREF has received over 1.2 million euro in the past week to meet immediate needs of the affected communities in the areas where we work. The money has been raised by AMREF in Germany, Austria and Italy. An impact assessment of AMREF programme areas in Kenya shows that activities have been disrupted as communities’ priorities shift towards the search for water and food.
The most affected areas are Samburu, Kitui, Lamu, Magadi, Turkana, Makueni, Kajiado, Kibera and Dagoretti in Nairobi, and the coastal region. AMREF’s is keen to ensure that the situation in these areas does not deteriorate to emergency crisis level.
A Drought Response Core Team has developed an implementation plan of short- and medium-term interventions to assist the most affected populations within our programme areas. Project staff in the field have already been doing all they can to mitigate the impact of the drought and accompanying health effects, but a lot still needs to be done.
In coordination with the government and civil society organisations involved in food distribution, AMREF’s response is aimed at mitigating the effects of the drought and famine on the health of affected communities. This includes putting up more water sources such as boreholes, and shallow wells, promotion of sanitation and hygiene in schools and households. Using existing structures in programme areas, including Community Health Workers, AMREF will scale up and diversify outreach services targeting the most vulnerable groups in the community. This includes distribution of food supplements to malnourished children, pregnant women and people living with HIV, and creation of temporary community therapeutic centres for children under five and pregnant women. School children are another key vulnerable target group for AMREF, through supply of water and supplementary feeding programmes.
In the refugee camps in Daadab and Kakuma, AMREF has done an initial assessment of the situation in preparation for medical outreaches that will particularly target women and children. Most of those flocking from Somalia to the Daadab camp, and spilling over into Kakuma, are women with severely malnourished children in need of emergency food and medical care.
The famine response kitty will also assist affected communities in AMREF programme areas in Ethiopia and Southern Sudan. At the same time, AMREF employees have set up a fund for staff contributions towards the famine response.
