Africa :
Help on the move

Famine: your support makes the difference

Your support is now reflected in programs designed to protect communities affected by the complex and combined crises: food parcels, shelter, hygiene items, medical and nutritional care, water and sanitation … for neglecting a longer-term vision, especially in terms of infrastructure, agriculture and livestock.

Read how conflict and drought produce famine and how your support makes a difference in South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia.

South Sudan

Mary Akoye is one of the many faces of the human drama that rages in South Sudan. She stands in front of the makeshift shelter in which her husband and their children took refuge at Billing Boma in April 2016. Until recently, Mary and her family were eating non-ripe mangoes torn from the trees and, in the evening, boiled leaves to calm the hunger. But aid has arrived, and Mary and her family are now one of 290 displaced households in the area who can count on the food distributions put in place by Caritas. These families were identified by Caritas employees, based on their food situation and vulnerability. Each of them is invited to come to the neighboring school, where vouchers by Caritas are exchanged for foodstuffs.

Nigeria

The crisis in northeastern Nigeria and more widely throughout the Lake Chad Basin is one of the most neglected humanitarian areas. And yet, 7 million people depend on international aid while 2.3 million people have left their lands and property to escape the fighting between Boko Haram and the armed forces. Among them, many have found refuge in Maiduguri, in the state of Borno. With its local partners, Caritas assists the displaced persons at their installation.

A key element for nutrition and hygiene: displaced families and host families are closely associated with the maintenance and management of water points. Finally, Caritas organizes carpentry training to allow families to build and maintain temporary shelters, where they will finally find some respite after the dramatic episodes of which they were in spite of themselves the victims.

Somalia

In Somalia, Caritas on the ground launched an emergency call to partners in their global network in April to massively increase their volume of activities. Today, nearly 11,000 children with malnutrition, pregnant women or nursing mothers have access to health and nutrition care through 3 hospitals, 4 health centers and 10 primary care units.

Putting an End to the Hunger Scandal

For a complete overview of the projects you can do in these 3 countries and in the neighboring countries where many hunger victims have found refuge, see our article “Caritas fight against starvation: an overview”. This aid is vital and is synonymous with a better tomorrow for thousands of people, but humanitarian aid has never stopped the violence. However, it is above all in regional conflicts that the source of this major injustice is the origin of the use of famine as a weapon of war. With you, Caritas and its field and church partners will continue to work for the necessary political dialogue and call on the international community to put pressure on the warring parties to put an end to the hunger scandal.