Hunger Relief in Africa
Action Against Hunger is internationally recognized as a leader in the fight against global malnutrition. Action Against Hunger works to save the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger. With over 30 years of expertise in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity, Action Against Hunger runs life-saving programs in some 40 countries benefiting 5 million people each year.
Burkina Faso
Possessing very few natural resources, the country is dependent on an agricultural economy which is having trouble supporting a demographic boom (in less than 30 years, the population has doubled) in the midst of successive and alternating waves of floods and dry spurts. Furthermore, the country has been confronted with new problems including a rapidly growing urbanization, inflation, cholera outbreaks which subsist in Ouagagadougou, in addition to the AIDS pandemic.
Chad
While Chad’s Sahelian region frequently experiences high rates of acute malnutrition during the “hunger gap”—a period of routine scarcity between harvests—2010 was particularly harsh. Insufficient rainfall over the past two years helped push nearly two-thirds of families in Chad into food insecurity, and the lack of access to arable land, water, and health care also contributed to skyrocketing malnutrition rates.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
A nation reeling from decades of conflict and neglect, D.R. Congo experiences routine outbreaks of severe malnutrition that threaten thousands of lives. Action Against Hunger is building the capacity of local health systems to tackle this deadly condition. In 2010 alone in D.R. Congo we trained almost 4,000 public health workers and equipped 476 treatment centers, ensuring that 42,000 severely malnourished people—the vast majority of them children—received life-saving care.
Djibouti
Djibouti is a country that is nearly devoid of natural resources and is subsequently dependent on imports for all commodities. Due to its geographical location, it has become a hub of shipping for countries in the interior of the Horn of Africa. The country has a rich urban population, but the majority of citizens live in the outskirts in crowded neighborhoods. Over 250,000 people are scattered in hundreds of small, rural villages. Considering the small size of the country, our program activities are countrywide.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia faces a wide array of humanitarian problems, including escalating food prices, internally displaced populations, an influx of refugees, and drought-related public health threats like acute watery diarrhea. Some five million people are at risk. Action Against Hunger maintains nutrition, food security, and water, sanitation and hygiene programs throughout the country. More than 150,000 drought-affected individuals have been assisted by Action Against Hunger teams so far this year, and we expect to support more than 285,000 people by the end of 2011.
Kenya
Some 3.75 million Kenyans have been affected by drought and food shortages as the crisis in the Horn of Africa intensifies. ACF’s teams are scaling up emergency nutrition programs to help the estimated 50,000 to 65,000 children in need of treatment for deadly acute malnutrition, and our food security and water & sanitation programs are providing immediate relief for tens of thousands across the country. ACF is racing to expand its response before conditions deteriorate further.
Mauritania
With a vast desert area, only 0.5% of Mauritanian territory is actually agriculturally feasible. Furthermore, inhabited principally by a nomad population, only 40% of its people reside in urban areas, which makes for a difficult access to basic necessities such as drinkable water or satisfactory sanitary conditions, even registering one of the worst rates in the world.
Niger
5,600 vulnerable families in Niger were helped through a food crisis with ACF's cash-for-work programs and distributions of seeds and tools in 2010.
Nigeria
One of African’s wealthiest and most populous nations, Nigeria has the third highest number of severely malnourished children in the world. ACF's lifesaving nutrition programs aim to help the Nigerian government build capacity and strengthen their health system to tackle this deadly condition. In 2011 alone, ACF trained some 1,000 public health workers and equipped and supported 200 health centers, ensuring that 12,000 severely malnourished individuals—the vast majority of them children—received life-saving care.
Somalia
The 2011 drought and famine has hit Somalia harder than any other nation in the Horn of Africa. Action Against Hunger is one of only a few organizations working in the Bakool and Benadir regions of Somalia—the epicenter of this catastrophe—and our teams are providing assistance in Mogadishu and in the refugee camps along the Ethiopian and Kenyan borders, where thousands of Somalis have sought refuge. Providing humanitarian assistance in Somalia is complicated by its unique security context, not to mention the logistical difficulties of delivering assistance across contested territories. Despite these difficulties, Action Against Hunger provided more than 130,000 people with assistance in July alone. Donate now »
Uganda
Action Against Hunger’s therapeutic nutrition programs—and capacity-building support for Uganda’s health system—provided lifesaving treatment for 35,000 severely malnourished children in 2011.
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