Ethiopia: help for the drought affected

The Somali region in southeastern Ethiopia is one of the driest areas in the country. The region is increasingly affected by severe droughts. Together with its partner organisation RACIDA, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has been active in the region for years when the drought situation is particularly acute and people's lives are at risk.

Asura is one of many displaced people in Walaysalam, a community in Dheka Suftu. Due to the severe drought in 2017, she and her family had to flee to Walaysalam in the hope of finding help from relatives. They used to live as pastoralists from their cattle herds. But then came the drought, the cattle died, and with it their livelihood.  
"Before RACIDA came to the area, our situation here was really bad," says the mother of eight children. "People did not have enough to drink, let alone water to wash or cook. Thanks to the help of RACIDA and the tank trucks, we were able to supply ourselves with fresh water in just 30 minutes. We also received water treatment tablets so that we could prepare water for safe consumption." In 2018, Asura and her children received 45 litres of water per day over a period of five months, which was brought to the region by tanker truck. The number of diarrhoeal diseases in the project area was significantly reduced by the water purification tablets.  


Around eight million people in Ethiopia are dependent on humanitarian aid. This is due to internal conflicts and displacements as well as frequent natural events such as droughts and floods. In particular, continuing drought in the south and southeast of the country has severely impaired food security and the livelihoods of thousands of small farmers and pastoralists. Some 8.3 million people depend on food aid, especially in the Somali region. After the drought became particularly severe in 2017, weeks of heavy rainfall with extreme flooding occurred in 2018. Entire towns and villages were under water, hundreds of thousands lost all their belongings.
 
In this situation it's so good to know you at our side. Thank you for the support.

Yours

Michael Tuerk