Africa Drought and Famine Fund

Across Yemen and eastern Africa, prolonged drought, conflict, and economic insecurity have made it nearly impossible for millions to access food and water. Now, the global COVID-19 crisis poses additional threats to the health and financial wellbeing of families and individuals throughout the region. 

Thanks to the support of nearly 6,000 compassionate donors like you, our locally-led nonprofit partners in the region have changed countless lives in merely three years by helping their communities access the nutrition they need to thrive. Now, many are working tirelessly to support those most vulnerable to the impacts of the novel coronavirus. Our team is now closing this fund but will continue supporting our partners as effectively as possible in the face of this new challenge. Before we do, we wanted to share a few of the ways your generosity has already helped to change lives. 

SMEPS is leading a holistic response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Yemen by building on their deep-rooted understanding of their communities’ needs. In addition to distributing essential food supplies, they’re now providing 80 households with hygiene necessities such as soap and hand sanitizer. SMEPS is also offering crucial COVID-19 prevention and awareness training, ensuring that community members stay safe and healthy. 

Sanid Organization for Relief and Development is developing a health clinic which will support mothers and children facing food insecurity by providing free health care, offering education on proper nutrition, and increasing community awareness. More than 2,000 community members are already benefiting from their work, which will be even more crucial as families cope with the many impacts of COVID-19. 

We can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done to support these successes, and we invite you to join us in celebrating the incredible compassion, dedication, and perseverance of all the partners in this fund. As we turn our attention to alleviating the impacts of COVID-19 around the world, we know we can count on you to continue supporting the creation of a better world. 

An anonymous GlobalGiving donor said it best: “The world is tied together. The minute you realize this it makes sense to do your part in helping it stay together. Therein lies our most fundamental purpose.” 

Thank you for all you do to elevate community-led change during these uncertain times. Through solidarity, we can overcome any crisis. 

Stay safe and take care,

Nicole Gieselman + the GlobalGiving Team

Across eastern Africa, droughts worsened by climate change, political turmoil, and economic unrest have all contributed to critical food shortages. In some areas, malnutrition levels have climbed as high as 30%. 

The youngest members of society are the ones who are most impacted by the effects of acute hunger, and about 14 million children throughout Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Somalia are struggling to get enough to eat. As their hunger increases and energy wanes, they’re often forced to stop attending school. The potential consequences of these absences extend far beyond a few missed classes: the loss of potential leaders and entrepreneurs could impact the region for many years into the future. 

Thankfully, community-focused organizations throughout East Africa are providing kids with the resources they need to stay in school. With the help of over 5,500 generous donors like you, we’ve raised $252,302 in support of their vital work. 

Here’s how two of our partners are getting kids both the meals and other support they need to not only stay in the classroom but to successfully contribute to their communities. 

Seed Programs International provides much needed nutrition for students and promotes education and  by building school gardens. Not only do the children attending these schools benefit from homegrown lunches, but they’re also able to learn valuable life skills by participating in garden maintenance. 

Mr. Mbugua has been working with Seed Programs International for more than two years. As the Valley Bridge Primary School Headmaster, he’s witnessed firsthand the incredible impact proper nutrition has on his students. 

“As a teacher, my goal is to teach my students to not just merely exist, but to be part of the change we need. When children are not hungry, they are able to exercise their right to receive an education in school and beyond.”  

Makindu Children’s Program is helping children and adolescents in rural communities throughout eastern Kenya to thrive by providing nutrient-dense meals and developmental support. 

Their food basket delivery program provides the most vulnerable households with enough healthy food to sustain the entire family for weeks. This steady source of food has already ensured the continued education for 46 children in rural Kenyan communities. 

Makindu Children’s Program also offers vocational training to students who aren’t able to attend traditional colleges, helping young adults build successful futures and break free from cycles of poverty and deprivation. 

With your committed support, our vetted nonprofit partners are able to sustain long-term projects and create opportunities for future growth. In the coming months, we’ll continue sending updates so you understand how your money helps build resilience in communities throughout East Africa. 

With gratitude,

Nicole Gieselman + the GlobalGiving Team

Across Africa, nearly 72 million people struggle to find secure sources of food. South Sudan has been the hardest hit, facing a combination of climate change, economic unrest, and armed conflicts. These difficulties have already led to mass displacement: an estimated 2.8 million people will be forced to leave their homes by the end of 2019. 

Thanks to the generosity of 4,861 GlobalGivers like you, we’ve raised $232,652 to help communities across East Africa build long-term resilience in the face of these challenges. Here’s an update on the support our partners are offering to some of the most vulnerable populations in the region:

Increasing unpredictability in the rainy season has caused food prices to rise, forcing many people in Kenya to migrate in search of aid. As the traditional herding lifestyle becomes less sustainable, groups like Child Rescue Kenya work to ease the transition. Across the country, they’ve enrolled children in school, reunited families, and trained small business owners in order to help people adapt to new lifestyles in the face of increasingly impactful climate change. 

Decades of conflict and drought have led to mass displacement in Somalia, forcing refugees into the capital, Mogadishu. At Banadir Hospital, Concern Worldwide U.S. operates in the midst of this insecurity and displacement. This maternal and child health facility provides crucial support to Mogadishu’s overstrained healthcare system, caring for approximately 1,000 inpatients at any one time. Under seemingly impossible conditions, dedicated staff deliver up to 15 babies a day, provide stabilization for children suffering from acute malnutrition, and perform life-saving surgeries. 

Beyond protecting mothers and their children, Concern Worldwide U.S. fosters long-term financial stability by supporting payments and providing specialized training to hospital staff. 

In villages across Darfur, women are often left to fend for themselves and their children while their husbands travel in search of work.They face extreme inflation, harsh climate conditions, and traditions which place women in the background of the community. Kids for Kids offers these women with the opportunity to generate their own income by providing goats and cultivating an atmosphere of female empowerment within villages in Darfur. After an incredibly successful International Women’s Day campaign this spring, Kids for Kids hopes to reach 3,347 women in 8 new villages over the course of the year. 

With your support, our vetted nonprofit partners can continue building resilience in communities throughout East Africa. In the coming months, we’ll continue sending updates so you understand how your money is making an impact. 

With gratitude,

Nicole Gieselman + the GlobalGiving Team

Across East Africa, a wide range of factors, including armed conflict, extended droughts, economic shocks, and rising food prices, pose an ongoing threat to food security for people in the region over the coming months.

Since our Africa Drought and Famine Fund was launched in 2017, our vetted nonprofit partners working in East Africa have been assisting communities at risk of famine improve the resiliency of their food production systems. Thanks to generous support from donors like you, our partners have reported significant recent progress in combating food insecurity in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan:

• Horn of Africa Development Initiative is currently working with 152 villages in Marsabit County in northern Kenya, where they are improving food security through direct cash transfers to families struggling to meet their food needs. They're also supplying families with rainwater collection tanks, a vital source of drinking water when access to safe sources can be scarce.
• In southeastern Kenya, Makindu Children's Program is distributing 187 pregnant Galla goats to households in Makueni County. The goats—indigenous to Kenya and renowned for their high milk production in arid climates—will provide families not only with the nutrition from the milk but also the opportunity to earn additional income by selling their extra milk. They're also organizing an educational workshop on animal husbandry in coordination with the Kenyan government so that the households receiving the goats are well-prepared to successfully raise the animals.
• Kids for Kids has expanded their work in Sudan, where they will now be partnering with eight new villages in remote areas of Darfur. Facing the challenge of a failed harvest last year, Kids for Kids is working with these communities to identify the families in greatest need of assistance. They are also continuing their goat loan program and have distributed hand pumps to villages struggling with access to safe drinking water.
• Seed Programs International focuses on vegetable gardening as a strategy to boost nutrition, income, and local leadership in East Africa, and sees gardens as key to building communities' resilience to future food crises. To that end, they've partnered with Grow East Africa to support a vegetable gardening project led by a woman's group from a camp for internally displaced people in Ethiopia's Burji District. Their partner has also helped the group become a government-licensed cooperative, which presents more opportunities for growth and improved livelihoods.

Your donation has helped make these and many more stories of partnership and progress possible. Thank you for supporting community-led disaster relief efforts, and for doing so by donating cash—the most effective way to help in times of crisis.

With gratitude,
Will + the GlobalGiving Team

It's been 20 months since we launched this relief fund in response to acute famine and drought conditions across East Africa, and significant challenges to food security persist throughout the region, including lower than expected rainfall and internal conflicts. USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network projects that substantial portions of Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan will experience either "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity over the next four months, while the majority of Kenya's territory will continue to be classified as "stressed."

Thanks to 3,005 donors like you who've raised more than $186,000 to support our Africa Drought and Famine Relief Fund, our vetted nonprofit partners remain committed to helping communities across the region combat acute food insecurity and build the resilience of local food systems. Here are three updates from projects that your donation has supported:

• Due to inconsistent rainfall in Kenya’s arid north, Child Rescue Kenya has seen an influx of families and homeless children arriving in the rift valley city of Kitale. They’re continuing their two-pronged approach to assisting those migrating because of drought: helping families become more self-sufficient through education about modern, effective farming practices, and providing support for children living on the streets through their Street Smart drop-in center, street-level outreach by social workers, and providing safe temporary housing at their Birunda Rescue Centre.
• Seed Programs International has been strengthening their partnerships with local NGOs in Ethiopia and Kenya. Working with Seed Savers Network Kenya, they’ve helped a school in Gilgil serving children with disabilities, many of whom require special, closely-monitored diets, start their own vegetable garden, adding fresh tomatoes, carrots, hot peppers, kale, and cabbage to the menu and allowing them to sell the excess and purchase fresh fruit. In coordination with their lead partner in Ethiopia, GrowEastAfrica, they’ve provided grain rations and direct financial assistance to purchase medicine and housing for families who’ve been internally displaced by conflict.
• In South Sudan’s northern Bahr el Ghazal region, Concern Worldwide US has supported 49 health facilities treating moderate acute malnutrition in children under five and nursing mothers, and treated young children with severe malnutrition as inpatients at Concern Stabilization Centers.

In the months to come we’ll continue to keep you updated on the ongoing work of our partners in East Africa. And thank you again, not just for donating to our Africa Drought and Famine Relief Fund, but for how you gave—you made the wise decision to donate money, rather than physical goods to support community-led relief work. Giving money after a disaster allows for quicker and more efficient deployment of resources and supports, rather than disrupts, local economies.

Warmly,
Will Frechette + the GlobalGiving Team