Exactly twelve months since the Disasters and Emergency Committee (DEC) first launched the East Africa Appeal, the UK public have donated a staggering £79m to the afflicted region, which in the last year has funded emergency aid for 2.3m people. Christian Aid alone has raised more than £4.5 million so far.
With some areas experiencing the worst rainfall in 60 years and parts of Somalia affected by famine in 2011, the aid effort has helped save many lives in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and parts of South Sudan.
However, the region has still had only erratic rains at best and the conflict in south central Somalia continues, meaning that 9m people across the region are still in need of food aid.
An increasing amount of Christian Aid’s work now focuses on supporting livelihoods to help people get back on their feet and ensure they are better prepared and more resilient to future crises.
In Ethiopia, Christian Aid and local partners are providing safe drinking water for at least 20,000 Somali refugees in Dollo Ado camp and rehabilitating pasture land to help build resilience to drought.
In Kenya, Christian Aid and partners are helping communities to recover their livelihoods by providing additional water points and maintaining existing boreholes to provide water for 6,500 families, and providing training along with drought-tolerant seeds and tools for 1,500 women farmers.
They are also enabling families to diversify their livestock to include chickens and other poultry that are more resilient to dry conditions than larger animals, and helping communities improve the healthcare of livestock.
