Food Security & Livelihoods

Across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti, we’re helping thousands of children in the hardest-hit regions—from the 3,000 malnourished children we’re treating in Somalia, to our efforts in Garbatulla, Kenya, where one in five children is now malnourished. We’re racing to reduce the impact of water shortages by constructing wells, drilling boreholes, and installing storage devices to capture future rainfall, in addition to promoting hygiene to prevent the spread of diarrhea, cholera, and other water-borne diseases.

Across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti, we’re helping thousands of children in the hardest-hit regions—from the 3,000 malnourished children we’re treating in Somalia, to our efforts in Garbatulla, Kenya, where one in five children is now malnourished. We’re racing to reduce the impact of water shortages by constructing wells, drilling boreholes, and installing storage devices to capture future rainfall, in addition to promoting hygiene to prevent the spread of diarrhea, cholera, and other water-borne diseases.

Across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti, we’re helping thousands of children in the hardest-hit regions—from the 3,000 malnourished children we’re treating in Somalia, to our efforts in Garbatulla, Kenya, where one in five children is now malnourished. We’re racing to reduce the impact of water shortages by constructing wells, drilling boreholes, and installing storage devices to capture future rainfall, in addition to promoting hygiene to prevent the spread of diarrhea, cholera, and other water-borne diseases.

Hadija Ukalake is the head of Mochuro, a small village in the Garbatulla region of of Kenya. In Mochuro, 285 families live below the official poverty line. Three-quarters of families in the village have come from Somalia, having fled their home country's lawlessness for the relative peace of Kenya. Traditionally, families in the community have made their livelihoods keeping animals, but this pastoral way of life has been all but wiped out by two years of drought. The greater part of the community's herds have died for lack of water and pasture.

Given the immense scale of the humanitarian disaster affecting the Greater Horn of Africa—some 12 million people across four countries—we fear this devastating food crisis will continue well into next year. Even as we struggle to reach everyone in need of help, it’s clear that hundreds of thousands of families will remain in urgent need of food and assistance in the coming months, even if the rains arrive later this year.

Kendra Hughbanks is working for ACF International as the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) Assistant. Though based in New York, she is spending a month in the Philippines to focus on case studies that illuminate emergency intervention and recovery. This post is the first in a series. Read Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Action Against Hunger is currently responding in two of Somalia’s most affected regions, Bakool and Benadir, where our programs to date have focused on (1) the provision of therapeutic treatment and medical care for acutely malnourished children, (2) general nutritional support for children under five years of age, and (3) emergency access to food, clean water, and improved sanitation for the most vulnerable.