Throughout Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, there are more than 12.4 million people whose lives have been devastated by drought, famine and conflict. There are now more than two million children in the area who are in dire need of food, water and basic healthcare. To put this in perspective, the amount of people affected in East Africa is more than the population of New South Wales and Queensland combined.

In Southern Somalia, famine has been declared. This situation arose as a result of intense drought, armed conflict and an exorbitant rise in food prices, so that now, there are more than 600,000 children who are close to death because they are suffering from severe malnutrition.

Also affected by drought and malnutrition, Ethiopia has approximately 4.5 million people who will need food relief until the end of the year, 650,000 of whom will be children.

Severe drought in Kenya has caused a near-total crop failure and left many of its people unsure where their next meal will come from. An influx of Somali refugees into the Dadaab camps has led to the camps’ rising population now totaling more than 400,000, with women and children making up 80 per cent of this number.

Donate to charity and you can Help with the Crisis

One of the ways you can provide invaluable help is to donate to charity. UNICEF is a charity that works in co-ordination with other humanitarian agencies to ensure the most help is received by children most in need during emergency situations.

Unlike certain other charities, UNICEF will not ask you to sponsor a child. Instead, you will become a Global Parent. Years of working with children has shown the best way UNICEF can help, is to work with all parties involved, such as governments, NGOs and communities.

If you sponsor a child it can cause upset within the family and the community. Donations from Global Parents allow UNICEF to work for a better solution in co-ordination with NGOs, governments and communities as a whole.

So far, Global Parents have helped UNICEF vaccinate 58 per cent of the world’s children against diseases such as measles and polio; build schools in 41 countries; provide essentials to children in over 290 emergencies in 2010; and protect children from malaria by supplying 23 million mosquito nets.

UNICEF is a charity, and to accomplish its goals it relies on donations. Donations provide food, water, healthcare and most of all, hope, to children in crisis situations.

Donate to charity. Become a Global Parent with UNICEF and see how much you can do.