Author William Lambers

We all live on the same planet, but there are two different worlds. In one, food is so plentiful that you can choose from hundreds of varieties within a square mile of your home. In the other, some small children go for days without one thing to eat.

This is what is happening in East Africa as Somalis flee their homeland to escape the severe drought and famine that has descended on it. Children perish in this desperate search for food. Others are severely malnourished as they arrive in refugee camps.

Read the full article at The Providence Journal

Josette Sheeran, the director of the UN World Food Programme, sent this message yesterday via WFP USA about the famine in East Africa.

Here is the text of the letter:

I’ve just returned from a trip to Somalia and Kenya where it’s truly a life and death situation. I met a young mother in Mogadishu who walked for four days in search of food. She lost three children.

The famine is taking countless lives, mostly children. We’ve been scaling up our operations for six months, but Somalia has been hit especially hard by consecutive droughts and an ongoing conflict that has limited humanitarian access.

We’re starting emergency airlifts to get food to children who desperately need it.

The suffering is terrible across the Horn of Africa. In Kenya, lack of water and high food prices are causing a dramatic rise in the number of severely malnourished children. At the refugee camps in Dadaab, which I visited on Saturday, we’re providing three-week food rations to families arriving from Somalia, many of whom haven’t eaten for days.

Your recent contribution provides food that will save lives. Thank you so much for your generosity.

We’ll keep you updated on the situation and how we’re responding. As always, thank you for fighting hunger with World Food Program USA.

Sincerely,

Josette

Josette Sheeran
Executive Director
World Food Program

To donate visit www.wfpusa.org/hornofafrica

It is June 1950, and North Korean troops have crossed over the border to attack South Korea. Heavy artillery and tanks move in. War has erupted that would soon involve U.S. forces coming to the aid of the South, and the Communist Chinese army joining with the North.

If you are a civilian trapped in between this conflict, you would be in shock. You could try to outrun the enemy and flee to safer ground. Maybe you can escape. Maybe not.

Read the full article at Blogcritics Magazine

According to Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey, “we must be prepared to address a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis” in Yemen. Chairing a Senate hearing last week Casey emphasized, “The U.S. needs to send a message of clear solidarity with the Yemeni people, that we are concerned for their well-being and the prospects for their future.”

Meanwhile, humanitarian resources remain severely lacking within Yemen, with children particularly vulnerable. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), as well as UNICEF, lack adequate funding to carry out hunger relief missions which would help stabilize the country.

Read the full article at Blogcritics Magazine

At a refugee camp in Kenya, a Somali mother feeds PlumpyNut to her malnourished child. Photo: Laura Sheahen/CRS

With drought and famine striking East Africa, children are at great risk of severe andeven deadly malnutrition. What can save the children? Plumpy’nut, a special peanut paste which aid agenices are using in the field right now.

Laura Sheahen of CRS shares these two photos of  plumpy’nut at work in a refugee camp in Kenya, where many Somalis have fled in search of food.  Children under age 5 are most at risk in a hunger crisis because without the right nutrients they can suffer lasting physical and mental damage. So quick intervention is the key.

If you want to save children then give them plumpy’nut. How do you do this? One way is through the Catholic Relief Services East Africa Emergency Fund. Please see my article on the CRS appeal.

Also Edesia, a Rhode Island based producer of plumpy’nut, is collecting funds for East Africa. Read more about Edesia here.

Article first published as Catholic Relief Services Issues Appeal to Save Starving People in East Africa on Blogcritics.

We all live on the same planet, but there are two different worlds. In one world, food is so plentiful you can choose from hundreds of varieties within a square mile of your home. In the other world, some small children go for days without one thing to eat.

Shelters dot a refugee area in Dadaab, Kenya. Thousands of refugees are flooding into Dadaab every week. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

This is what is tragically happening in East Africa as Somalis flee their homeland to escape the severe drought that has descended. Children perish in this desperate search for food. Others are severely malnourished as they arrive in refugee camps. The UN World Food Programme says over 11 million people need food aid. In parts of Somalia famine has been declared.

Somali children are dying of starvation as their families flee the drought conditions in their homeland.

The massive drought in Eastern Africa is putting around 10 million people in desperate need of aid in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and parts of Uganda. The drought has ruined food supplies for an already impoverished population.

Read the full article at Yahoo! Associated Content

Jeff Hillard, a College of Mount St. Joseph English teacher and editor of RED! Magazine , just delivered supplies to the Landmark Church’s Food Pantry in Cincinnati, Ohio. With tough times hitting the region, pantries like this one are in need of donations perhaps more than ever.

In the case of Landmark Church, Hillard explains the pantry hopes to receive regular supplies from the Freestore Foodbank , the Cincinnati area’s largest emergency food provider. The need is great with food insecurity rates in Cincinnati and throughout Ohio at about 17 percent, according to Feeding America . That is an alarmingly large percent of the population struggling to get food on the shelves.

Read the full article at Examiner.com