The crisis in Somalia continues to worsen. AAUW partner CARE is in the field providing emergency aid. Of special concern to CARE is helping to protect displaced women and girls from gender-based violence. To learn more and to find out how you can help, please visit CARE’s Horn of Africa Food Crisis page.

AAUW partner CARE reports that the crisis in Somalia continues to worsen:

The worst humanitarian crisis in the world today continues to escalate in the Horn of Africa, where 12.4 million people are now in acute need of food assistance. CARE and other humanitarian agencies are working around the clock to respond, as a United Nations declaration of famine in parts of southern Somalia underscores the urgency of the situation.

The crisis extends across parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, with the concern that famine could spread. Some areas in the region are experiencing their worst drought in 60 years, with no chance of improvement until at least next year.

Seasonal rains have failed for the past two or three years, hitting hard in communities already severely affected by poverty, climate change, conflict, and skyrocketing food and fuel prices. Many very poor people, including pastoralists whose herds have been devastated by drought, have been forced to sell their few assets in order to buy food.

CARE is in the field providing emergency aid.  Of special concern to CARE is helping to protect displaced women and girls from gender-based violence.  To learn more and to find out how you can help, please visit CARE’s Horn of Africa Food Crisis page.