Nutrition

Nan Dale is the CEO of Action Against Hunger. Based in New York, she frequently travels to the field to experience and evaluate various programs. Recently, she spent a week in Kenya. This post originally appears on the Huffington Post.

Open Letter: Putting People Before Politics in Somalia

Note: This post originally appears as a guest post over on the 1,000 Days blog.

In an effort to enhance its emergency response across the Horn of Africa, which is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in decades, Action Against Hunger continues to ship water and sanitation equipment and critical food supplies to the region to reinforce its ongoing efforts.

Fatima Adam owns a grocery store in Eskot, a town in Garbatulla in central Kenya. The shop earned enough to provide for her family until a severe drought—the country’s worst in 60 years—left her shelves bare and her customers, most of whom earn money by farming, with little to spend. Her income declined badly and, at the height of the drought, access to food became less and less reliable.  As a result, her young son, Abdi, now suffers from malnutrition.

Hassan is a father who knows what it means to worry. His small daughter, Mariam, is three and a half years old, and she has already faced death. The frail little girl weighed just 23 pounds when a team from Action Against Hunger arrived in their small town of Eskot, in central Kenya, to screen children for malnutrition.

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.

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.