Giving Opportunity: Severe Food Shortage in Africa. "500,000 Children are at Risk of Imminent Death."

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" 

Matthew 25:37,40

Please consider this giving opportunity as a great need is happening now, in and around Kenya. Here is a Samaritan's Purse update on the severe drought and food shortage occurring in the Horn of Africa:

The most devastating drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years has created a critical food shortage that is threatening the lives of 11 million people. A recent report warns that more than 500,000 children are at risk of imminent death. The United Nations has described the crisis as "the world's worst humanitarian disaster."

Crop failure, drought, and massive loss of livestock have led to famine-like conditions in a region straddling Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Only 20 percent of the families have access to clean water in some areas. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have fled to makeshift camps in northeast Kenya looking for emergency aid.

Many of the displaced are refugees from neighboring Somalia, who left their war-torn country in hopes of finding help over the border. Much of Somalia is controlled by a militant group, affiliated with al Qaeda, that has denied that a food shortage exists and threatened to maintain their ban on food aid.

The camps in Kenya are overcrowded, and resources are stretched beyond capacity. Conditions aren’t much better outside the camps. Samaritan’s Purse church partners are finding households facing dire shortages of basic food and water.

Some of the worst hit counties include Wajir and Garissa, areas considered the focal point of the Somalia refugee influx. In these regions, particularly where Samaritan’s Purse partners are involved, there is limited government assistance and little help from other agencies.

Samaritan’s Purse is responding to the crisis by working through our regional office in Kenya and our church partners, feeding 2,100 vulnerable families in Wajir and Garissa counties, providing a supplemental nutrition program for 1,700 school children, and supplying porridge and health care to 400 children under 5 years of age in Garissa.

Our long-term response includes digging five boreholes in strategic locations that will supply water for the community and their livestock.

Please pray for the people impacted by malnutrition and starvation, for our staff and church partners as they respond in the Name of Christ, and for God's help in meeting the overwhelming needs of the region.