Horn of Africa Famine: How to Help

Imagine that you live in a place that hasn't seen significant rain for years. You can't grow much, if any, food. You don't have clean drinking water unless you pay for it. You haven't seen your husband in months, because he's herding what animals you have left around the countryside in search of water.

There's food in the local market, but you have no way of getting enough money to buy it. So perhaps at some point, you set out on foot, with your children, looking for someplace that has food, water, and/or work. You might have to walk for days or even weeks. If you have very small children or elderly people with you, they might not make it.

That's the situation in the Horn of Africa right now. People in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti are suffering from drought and famine, which are destroying their livelihood. In addition, Somalia is an extremely unstable country, and people are in danger from Islamist militants, who have even killed aid workers in Somalia.

We can help. There is enough food in the world to feed all of these people. The hang-up is getting the food to the people, in the face of regulations (for instance, the U.S. requires that food given by the U.S. government be purchased from U.S. farmers/companies and shipped on U.S. boats) and political instabilities in the receiving countries. And just giving food to those in need doesn't address any of the underlying issues, like climate, jobs, and sustainable water systems.

Fortunately, there are aid organizations that try to do more than just food drops. If you're interested in donating, here are a few suggestions:

Mercy Corps provides immediate help as well as cash-for-work programs and food vouchers that can be used at local merchants. These programs put people to work and put money into the local economy, helping both merchants and customers.

Oxfam is providing emergency water in Ethiopia and Somalia, and helping people with drilling and repairing wells and boreholes. In Kenya, they're helping livestock owners with veterinary care and running "de-stocking" programs in which they buy up weaker animals and slaughter them for food, which helps provide food and put cash into the local economy.

The Mennonite Central Committee is helping people in Ethiopia (through a partner organization) with nutritional needs. In Kenya, they're supporting food-for-work programs, in which Kenyans "will be paid with cooking oil, maize and beans for their construction of 92 sand dams and 25 wells."