Your Impact X 2!

Hi jay: Right now you can double the impact of your donation for people suffering famine in Somalia! I thought you’d want to know that The Mosaic Company will match your donation for famine relief, dollar-for dollar. Your gift X 2! You can make a donation now at GiveMN.   So far, $11,006 have been matched. But we still have a ways to go. Can you help? Your donation will go directly to help families in Somalia.  There’s three things you should know about the famine:  1) As you’ve probably heard, drought in Somalia has led to a devastating famine. Children under the age of 5 are the most vulnerable. Families are fleeing to Mogadishu, Kenya and Ethiopia to try to get food and help. It’s the worst situation we at ARC have seen in decades.  2) ARC is working in Somalia to help these families. We’ve distributed food and basic essentials, built a water system to get clean water to 50,000 families and constructed latrines to stop the spread of disease. We’re setting up a cholera treatment unit and nutrition center at Banadir Hospital and bringing in medical volunteers to help care for the sick. (Above: A child collects water at one of the tap stands we setup in Rajo Camp(Camp Hope) in Mogadishu.)  3) You Can Help! The Mosaic Company wants to encourage you to support famine relief efforts. So, they’re challenging you with a match. For every dollar you give – up to $100,000 – they’ll match it.  Whatever you can give will help. We still have $89,000 to go to take advantage of this incredible opportunity!  Your gift will make a huge difference for families in Somalia, struggling to survive.   Thanks so much for your consideration.  Sincerely,  -Daniel   Daniel Wordsworth President, American Refugee Committee P.S. If you can, please click here and give as generously as you can at GiveMN.com.

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8-24 Update: Somalia Famine

Hi jay: I thought you’d want to hear the latest news from our team in Somalia. Here’s what’s been happening on the ground:    ARC Response to the Somalia Famine: Update (24 August 2011) @ Banadir Children’s Hospital in Mogadishu We’ve provided beds and mattresses, mosquito nets, clothes, cleaning supplies and other necessities to help children get the care they need. One of our volunteer doctors is helping in the hospital. But conditions are still poor. In one room, for example, there was a patient with tuberculosis, and other patients and relatives sleep in this room and are in danger of being infected. (Above: A child in Banadir hospital, struggling to recover from diarrhea.) The facility is understaffed and overcrowded. Children lie on the floor or on top of conference tables. Sanitation and hygiene are big concerns. Additional Needs Our staff just discovered a new settlement near the Mogadishu airport. About 300 families are seeking refuge here – with very little help. Water is being delivered, but they’ve been traveling long distances just to get food. A full assessment is planned.   Recap of Our Response We’ve had a team on the ground in Somalia since mid-July. Together with our partner, the American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa, we distributed food, clean water containers, tents for shelter and other necessities. (Above: A child collects water at one of the new water taps at Rajo Camp.) (Below: The water tank at Rajo Camp.) We’ve built a water system in Rajo Camp, a new camp, to provide clean drinking water to the 50,000 people who will eventually live there. With ARAHA, we’re constructing latrines and washing facilities. We’ll continue to keep you updated about our response to the famine in Somalia. Sincerely, -Daniel Daniel Wordsworth President, American Refugee Committee P.S. Click here if you'd like to make a donation at ARC's website.

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Update: Famine Response

Hi jay: I wanted to keep you on top of what we're doing in Somalia. Below is an update on our activities: ARC Response to the Somalia Famine:  Update (19 August 2011) Clean Water for 50,000 in Rajo Camp – the Mayor of Mogadishu is preparing a large camp for 50,000 people who have fled the famine and walked to Mogadishu. The Camp is called Rajo or Hope! Over the last 10 days the American Refugee Committee has constructed a water system throughout the camp, to provide clean drinking water to the 50,000 people who will move in over the coming weeks. The system takes water from a large elevated tank and uses gravity to pump water through a system of pipes to taps spread in strategic locations around the camp. Clean water is essential for life and health! It’s also part of our fight to stop Cholera spreading through the people who have come to Mogadishu seeking safety and protection. Above: Waterpoint hardware at Camp Rajo. Below: The water tank at Camp Rajo before it is lifted into place. Sanitation for 50,000 in Rajo Camp – The American Refugee Committee with our partner ARAHA is also building latrines and washing facilities throughout the camp! Construction has started on the first block of five latrines; the remaining nine blocks (totaling 50 latrines) will be built over the next week along with facilities to help people with washing and laundry. Sanitation like this is absolutely critical! Clean water and sanitation are the very things that fight to stop diarrhea and cholera from spreading. Above and below: Tents at Camp Rajo Volunteers in Action – Our first Somali volunteer has arrived in Mogadishu and is already helping in Benadir Children’s Hospital. Doctor Ismail Mualin from San Diego (formerly from Minnesota) is directing our efforts to support the children’s wing of this hospital. Starting tomorrow the team will be providing emergency supplies, including simple things like stretchers, bedding, utensils and mosquito nets! Alongside this the team is working with the hospital’s medical staff to get urgently required medical equipment, staff and medicines. Doctor Ismail is only the beginning additional volunteers are being mobilized to go in – starting with experts in Pediatrics! Above: A Facebook status update from Dr. Ismail on his work at Benadir Hospital. Stay tuned for more updates from us on the Somalia Famine Response. Sincerely, -Daniel Daniel Wordsworth President, American Refugee Committee www.ARCrelief.org

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Update: Somalia Famine

Hi jay: I wanted to keep you on top of what we're doing in Somalia. Below is an update I just sent to our Board of Directors.   ARC Response to the Somalia Famine:  Update (10 August 2011)   Overview: The situation in Somalia—and in the Horn of Africa—is dire.  As of today, famine has been declared in five regions (Bakool, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye corridor IDP (internally displaced persons) settlement, and the Mogadishu IDP community).  Nearly half the country is on the brink of famine with even Puntland and Somaliland in the north under extreme strain of severe drought. Massive and urgent assistance is needed in just about every sector.    ARC has been re-launching its programmatic presence in Somalia. We had previously planned to revisit areas in Puntland including Gaalkacyo.  Given the severity of the drought in South-Central Somalia, we redirected our attention to Mogadishu. ARC’s Somalia Program Director arrived on 12 July and was joined by our Director of Emergencies on 17 July. They visited several sites, including IDP settlements in Mogadishu and Dhobley, and met with partner agencies to determine how best to proceed. Watch video from one of those visits.   Current Actions:  In terms of program activities, we are working closely with ARAHA (American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa) to quickly respond to the needs of several hundred families in Mogadishu with food distributions, NFIs (non-food items) and relocation to camps with better conditions. With further funding, these activities will be expanded. We're also working to provide clean water and sanitation for 50,000 people. We're installing water points where people can get clean, safe water to drink and for cooking. We're also installing toilets and latrines to ensure hygienic living conditions. We're initiating programs and paving the way for an extended response. ARC staff members, volunteers and new hires have already arrived or will be sent within a week to surge our capacity.  Several Somali-American health professionals are expected to volunteer and travel to Mogadishu in the coming weeks.       Security: The security situation is poor in Mogadishu and fair along the Kenyan-Somali border. For a town in Somalia, Dhobley is relatively secure.   Program Development: Good opportunities exist for institutional support. Proposals are being worked on for submission to several large funders.      Registration and Legal Matters:  ARC is now registered in Somalia. The State Department, Treasury and USAID announced last week a significant relaxation of OFAC requirements for operating in Somalia, which make it easier to implement programs.   Future Plans: Given the gravity of the situation, we are rapidly putting the elements in place to have a robust and effective program. The primary sectors we are seeking to fund and implement are water and sanitation, nutrition, relief commodities, camp management, health, protection and livelihoods.  While the current focus is on Mogadishu and southern Somalia, once the emergency situation stabilizes, we will once again pursue our original plans for programs in Puntland. Sincerely, -Daniel Daniel Wordsworth President, American Refugee Committee www.ARCrelief.org

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From Mogadishu

Hi jay - I’m forwarding you this message from Eric James – one of our guys in Mogadishu. He’s been doing this work for years, and the famine in Somalia is the worst he’s seen. Eric was quoted on the front page of today's New York Times. Please, if you can, make a donation right now for families in Somalia like Madina's. Urgently, -Daniel From: James, Eric Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 5:16 AM To: Wordsworth, Daniel Subject: From Mogadishu Today in Mogadishu, while visiting a group squatting in a bombed-out building, I met Madina.  Her mother, herself suffering from a badly cancerous foot, holds her on her lap.  She shows the classic symptoms of marasmas, a type of protein energy malnutrition.  She has only rice and nothing else to eat.  One of six kids, her mother adjusts her little red and white dress while her matchstick limbs hardly move.  Her head, heavy from her malnutrition, slumps back.  Her thin hair and tight skin make it impossible to tell age and I find out she’s two years old.  Despondent, she doesn’t notice at first the small group of men standing around her.  When she eventually turns, her eyes reveal the agony she’s suffering.  This horrific malady has taken away her happiness and may claim her young life. (Madina and her mother) Eventually, gripped with the realization that I can’t do anything immediately to help Madina, I turn around to see others in this squalid space.  Hot and jammed with people, there is hardly room to move.  There is no privacy, little food and no running water.  For several hundred families there is one latrine.  Amongst the floor mats, laundry and cooking pots, several people crowd together.  As we walked in, just minutes before, they found out that their child died of measles.  Their faces filled with anguish, they sob at their loss.  This is explained to me and then, almost as an afterthought, I’m told matter-of-fact: “yesterday, four people died of measles here.”  There has been no measles vaccination campaign and cholera is also spreading.   It is a predictable and preventable situation: social fabric is ripped apart, severe drought for two years in a row and then failure to produce enough food.  Now most of the country, millions of people, faces famine.  In a bad year, farmers are particularly hard hit but this year even camels are dying of thirst.  People have worked through every one of their coping mechanisms – their fall back plans – until there is nothing else to do but flee in the hope of assistance.  Some have gone to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia but the majority has fled to the capital of Mogadishu.  To do so, they make a perilous trip by any means possible – shared vehicle, animal and even foot.  Each day hundreds, if not thousands, make their way into Mogadishu from areas hardest hit by the drought.  They make their way to growing makeshift camps.  Currently, more than 70,000 people have been newly displaced by the drought that has swept the region.  This is on top of the 1.4 million displaced people who have already been forced from their homes and communities.  They settle in one of the camps among the rubble that forms modern Mogadishu. Meanwhile, there is a scattering of coastal desert rains that fall but it doesn’t make it better (in fact, the Ministry of Health fears the rains will exacerbate the poor sanitation conditions in the city).  The interior remains bone dry with no sign of letup for three months until the wet months begin.  It will be another three months after that until crops are ready to harvest.  The situation is so grave that few, if any, can wait that long. Few aid organizations are available to help and the authorities lack the capacity to adequately respond.  In this situation, adults struggle to survive but the youngest suffer the most.  In our visit to camp after camp, we find child after child just like Madina.  Suffering has visited Mogadishu and the country of Somalia for too long. ARC’s emergency response is focusing on health, food, relief items, water and sanitation and activities specifically targeting children.   Eric James, PhD Director of Program Development and Emergencies American Refugee Committee   If you can, make a donation now for families in Somalia.

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