TEAR Fund steps up response as famine is declared

TEAR Fund steps up response as famine is declared

TEAR Fund is scaling up its response in Somalia following the United Nations announcement that the drought in parts of Somalia has been officially upgraded to famine status.

Famine is crudely defined as a mortality rate of more than two people per 10,000 per day and muscle wasting rates of above 30 per cent in children under five years old across an entire region.

TEAR Fund executive director Steve Tollestrup said the declaration of famine sent the signal that the situation was even more dire than had been reported and that donors needed to empower aid agencies to respond on a massive scale to avert widespread deaths.

“We have seen desperate people having to decide which of their children to try and save for the sake of the majority in their family. No parent should have to make this decision.”

TEAR Fund has stepped up its response into drought-stricken parts of Somalia and Northern Kenya providing life-saving food and water to those in desperate need. In Somalia, TEAR Fund is working among nomadic herders who have lost their livelihoods as their livestock have died, and they have no income to buy food at vastly inflated prices. “Staple food prices have risen more than 200 per cent.”

“We are grateful that the government has made some aid funds available but aid agencies will need a huge response from the public to feed the population of the region until the next rains come.” TEAR Fund is also working in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Northern Uganda.

To give to TEAR Fund’s Horn of Africa Appeal, go to tearfund.org.nz or phone 0800 800 777.

© Scoop Media