[kca_main] Re: Our Reaction to the Drought problem in Kenya

[Guest guest]

>

> Chifu,

>

> Please do Nd.Tom needs all the help right now.

>

> And yes, don't give up!

>

> Wams

***********

Wams,

FYI.

News release - Kenyan children most at risk as drought crisis deepens

date published: 09/02/2006

Drought is ravaging central Africa as the November 2005 long rains

failed to arrive. Over 3.5 million people in Kenya, including over

500,000 children, do not have food supplies or water sufficient to

survive and are taking extreme measures to cope. Save the Children,

which has been working in Kenya since 1984, is launching an appeal to

begin delivering food, water and health services immediately to two

districts devastated by the drought: Isiolo and Kajiado.

The programme will include age-appropriate food for 35,500 children

under age 5, water provision to needy primary schools in Isiolo and

Kajiado, rehabilitation of water holes that service schools and their

communities, and improved health care for severely and moderately

malnourished children (including provisions of therapeutic milk and

hospital equipment).

The International Save the Children Alliance works to protect children

in situations of conflict and disaster. Save the Children's response

will focus on mitigating the effects of drought on the nutritional

status of approximately 100,000 children under 5 years of age, primary

school children, and pregnant and lactating mothers. A Save the

Children assessment team, made up of experts in the fields of

logistics, nutrition, protection and security, have completed a review

of the situation in Kenya and estimated the relief effort for children

in the two districts at $3.3 million USD for the next 12 months. We

will be supporting children under the age of 5 who are not currently

receiving sufficient food, water or health care appropriate to their

needs.

Recent reports document extensive livestock deaths as water supplies

dry up. Save the Children has substantial expertise in working with

similar emergencies and predicts that human loss of life will begin to

rise exponentially as people living in these rural communities can no

longer rely on their herds for milk, or for cash income for food.

Action must be taken now to begin arranging for water and storage

facilities, vehicles, delivery of supplies, and staff to support the

allocation of food, water and health services.

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Save the Children is also responding to the needs of hundres of

families evacuated from their homes in Mozambique after water levels

in the Zambezi river reached dangerously high levels. For more

information please contact the press office - details below.

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For more information please contact:

Save the Children Press Office: 020 7012 6844

Email address: k.rawe@...

Notes to Editors

Save the Children fights for children in the UK and around the world

who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence. We work with

them to find lifelong answers to the problems they face.

For more information about Save the Children, please visit our

website: www.savethechildren.org.uk