Help Airlink Airlift Aid - Horn of Africa Drought

36 million people are facing acute hunger in the greater Horn of Africa (Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda) a number that continues to increase as the region faces the most prolonged drought in recent history. This crisis is compounded with livestock deaths, food and fuel price hikes, conflict and market and supply chain failure. In addition to the growing food insecurity, Uganda is now facing an Ebola outbreak. 

Response Highlights

Sudan

People across Sudan, including internally displaced peoples (IDPs), are struggling to meet basic needs, and their health is suffering as a result. In addition to the famine, millions of people lack access to clean water, putting them at increased risk of waterborne illness.

• Food Aid: Airlink recently worked alongside our NGO partner GlobalMedic and supported the airlift of 5,760 boxes of high-calorie, ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), to help children aged 6-24 months who in danger of malnutrition. 
• Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH): Airlink also helped send GlobalMedic’s signature family emergency kits that will provide thousands of families with clean water needs. These kits each contain a Water Purification Unit that will help give families access to clean drinking water. Each kit also comes with a number of basic hygiene items to assist families in maintaining a level of adequate sanitation. This includes bars of hand soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes.

Airlink has helped save our NGO partner, GlobalMedic, more than $700,000 in transportation costs for this shipment of 80 tons of aid. 

Somalia

The government of Somalia declared a drought emergency one year ago in November 2021. Since then, “the number of drought-affected people in Somalia has more than tripled to 7.8 million. More than a million people are displaced due to drought, and at least 6.7 million people face acute food insecurity through December” (UNOCHA).

• Food Aid: Airlink is currently assisting with a pipeline of 120 tons of therapeutic foods/nutritional supplements for the Danish Red Cross and our NGO partner IFRC to be delivered from December to January. Airlink’s support on this shipment will save our partners about 1 million dollars in transportation costs.

The cost of airfreight to these countries has greatly increased over the last several months, making Airlink’s ability to remove this as a barrier  for our NGO partners critical. You donations allow Airlink to continue providing this support so that our partners can get more aid to more people in need.