Cause & Effect:
Addressing The Africa Famine Crisis
By LaToya Cross
A cry for children brings upon more strength for the children. Hope for the children, engages the mother's fight for their survival -- family's fight for their survival.
As young hearts pump and tiny feet pitter pat on the dusted land, smiles are wide. Eyes are sad. Stomachs are flat to the rib. Arms are limb. Legs may be weak, but enjoy the pleasures of childhood; rolling up trash that they would find on the side of the road and winding it with a rubber similar to the look of a rubber band, and using the combination as a soccer ball.
Parents hold on to faith proceeding with life, as they know it, adjusting when and where needed.
The children, of course, have their own innate incline, that is to be children. That is to be happy.
Rocking back and forth cradling their babies while sweat beads run down their skin on dusted-barren land, mothers are remaining strong. Internally, fighting for the chance to feed all of their children, at least one time, not having to make such a heart wrenching decision of choosing between them. They want health for them all, equally.
This is a situational reality in the Horn of Africa, one that is seen all too much. Known all too well. And with all the remedies in the world, the fight for life continues for tens of thousands of children and their parents.
Casey Marsh, Director of the United Nations Children's Fund in Chicago, shares one woman's reality.
"She had walked for 30 days, leaving Somalia with her four children. They were all severely malnourished and she didn't have access to water along the way, clean drinking water," Marsh explains. "They didn't have access to a lot of food. They were living on just basic porridge, maize and just the staples that they could find along the way... two of her children died along the way."
Casey pauses. She's a mother. Emotions hit her hard. Her eyes begin to water as her right hand clenches her chest. She tries to speak but words are lost in despair and grief.
Taking a deep breath, she continues, "So if you can imagine, she had to make a decision, when she had a scarce amount of food, which children to feed. Not only that decision, but also the fact that two of her children didn't make it, when she did reach the camp ... the other two having a chance.
"The victory ... it's almost, this emergency is almost, one of my UNICEF colleagues calls it 'A Triumph in Motherhood' because these women are really working to save their kids."
We take so much for granted in this land.
 
Crisis in Africa: Cause & Effect
There's a dry and rainy season in various parts of Africa. Unfortunately, this year, Africa never received rain, causing a severe drought. "The rains didn't come this season, so a lot of people saw their livestock die. Now you have to seek other ways of living," Marsh says.
Without livestock, families are unable to provide food. Farming is a common lifestyle for most communities. Without clean water, livestock dies first. And this becomes a trickling effect that causes all to fight for health and life.
With that, what is currently happening in Africa is a famine. It's the worst food and security crisis Africa has encountered in 60 years, and the worst in the world.
This famine reaches across East Africa (Horn of Africa), which includes, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. It also exists in two regions of Southern Somalia, Southern Bakool and Lower Shabella.
"It's a massive humanitarian emergency. It's unfolding slowly. It's not like what we saw in Haiti, where, in a blink, everything changed and you can see the drama in that. People respond very quickly to that. This emergency is unfolding over a long period of time and has just reached dire proportions," Marsh expresses.
Rains are expected to appear in October, which could also be cause for alarm, resulting in the absence of new harvest and an elevated threat to contract measles and malaria. When a famine broke out in 1991-1992, a drastic report showed a significant wave of deaths after the rains began in October.
This emergency has a strong impact on children, leaving them hungry and exposed to malnutrition and other possible diseases and sicknesses. Statistics and reports state that if you lived in a community with 10,000 people, the mortality rate would equal out to 1 in 10 people dying every 11 weeks.
"It's kind of like a perfect storm of everything going wrong in the area right now," Marsh says.
The men are working just as hard as the women to continue to provide for their families. "The men are suffering as well. They are trying to make a living either in the markets or they're trying to farm. They're trying to do as much as they can to try and improve the economic situation."
A Somali refugee crisis is also brewing and causing a range of problems. This alone adds a major burden on the food crises. Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya are already weak economies and the most impacted.
Says Marsh, "They're all developing countries, so even before this crisis there is food insecurity, they have a high rate of children who are malnourished or can become severely malnourished.
"Right now there are nearly two million children out there that are severely malnourished and about 600 thousand of those children are on the brink of dying. I mean it could be any day now. That kind of number is unimaginable."
The tragedy of having to choose which family members will be fed due to lack of food staples extends to adults as well.
"There was a dad and his kids and wife and one of the grandparents had to travel for days to get to one of the camps and his wife died along the way. So he had to take care of the four kids, the three year old, Aden, is severely malnourished, but he was able to get him to the camp and give him a therapeutic feeding," shares Marsh.
Children and parents who make it to the hospital are considered "the lucky ones."
There's the existing war in Somalia, as well. In early August, most sought refuge to Kenya at Dadaab where U.N. Refugee Agency camps exist. The camps are said to host a maximum of 90,000 refugees and are now incredulously overcrowded with 440,000 Somalis, and another 1,500 refugees. Of those, most are women and children.
"We've got a refugee crisis. People are leaving the country to seek refuge from violent conflict in Somalia," says Marsh. "What we're seeing as far as refugee camps in the area are internally displaced people, if it's within the same country. Of that, 80 percent of new people arriving at the camp are women and children."
The conditions are even worse, as both women and children have been reported as being abused, sexually and violently en route to refugee camps.
The lack of clean water increases chance of disease and heightens the risk of child death. With this comes a huge problem with watery diarrhea from unclean water. If spread through the camps, it's very easy for a child who's already malnourished to succumb to watery diarrhea and die.
"We're really working on making sure that the spreading of other disease does not wipe out thousands of people. So we've undertaken a massive measles and polio vaccine campaign; making sure that we're positioning mosquito nets in the camps to protect from malaria."
Sadness within the Horn of Africa and that lies in family circles is present in many factors. Not only is the famine a food crisis, but also the effect of this tramples down and is capable of running interference when it comes to education. Trading in education for that of young labor. With such insecurity, children who were to attend school might be asked, instead, to work or sell something in the market.
"There were a lot of students, even before the crisis, that didn't have the chance of going to school, so part of what UNICEF is doing now in the camps is to make sure that there are educational kits that we brought in, setting up temporary schools, making sure that there are child friendly spaces in the area where kids can come and learn. "
Applying Solutions
As mentioned, the cause of this crisis is leaving the Horn of Africa in an ill state. Children are most at risk and mothers are doing whatever they can to provide for them, while men work in effort to honor their position as head of household. Regardless of which role one is playing, all are equally vying for entanglement in such various distraught and unfortunate happenings.
Amongst the local challenges Africa faces, the global economic recession poses a major issue, also. Much like the United States, with poor finances, prices increase and life becomes harder to navigate. Though the recession is not nearly as detrimental as such in the Horn of Africa and other regions, it has a massive effect on all.
"Prices for staples of food have gone up, and now people that were on the brink of not being able to afford them before, really can't afford them now.
"We have families struggling in the United States, but it's an entirely different level. To me and to many people around the world, it's unconscionable that in this day and age, there is any place in the global community where children are suffering to this extent," Marsh fumes.
"And the solutions are not that expensive. We know how to prevent this. We know how to save kids' lives."
UNICEF provides a critical amount of opportunity. From air crafting emergency health supplies, shipping in therapeutic eating packets, to bringing in temporary schools, supplying cholera kits and working to provide safe water and sanitation, their dedication to the progressing lives of children is endless and selfless.
Marsh says proudly that "UNICEF is the organization that has saved more lives for children than any other organization in the entire world and I think that speaks volumes about the mission and the passion for people who are working for this organization. We don't just deal with emergencies, we deal with bettering the lives of children every single day."
The organization, along with their various partners, provide "plumpy nut," a vitamin-fortified peanut butter and therapeutic eating kit that essentially helps in the process of bringing kids back from starvation.
"Plumpy nut doesn't need to be refrigerated and you don't need to add any water to it, which are really important factors in an emergency like this," says Marsh. "It's been looked at as almost a miracle in really helping the issue of emergency malnutrition cases."
Not only is UNICEF providing food kits, but education is accessible in the refugee camps, implanting some sense of normalcy for children who were slated to start school for the first time and those who've been receiving an education before the decrease in livelihood.
"Right now the request from UNICEF, worldwide, is about $300 million by the end of 2011 in order to adequately relieve this crisis and save lives. The current shortfall is $127 million that we still need to raise."
The encouragement to get involved has to come strictly from the generosity of your heart. And yes, anything that you offer is helpful. By donating just $10 can feed a child for 10 days. If the food reaches them in time, recovery can present itself anywhere from a few months, weeks, or within a few days.
"You'll see a child getting strength and getting that little sparkle in his/her eyes and just getting a little more life back. But if it was a severe case of malnutrition, it can take a while."
Do know that your donations are extremely valuable in putting an end to this crisis?
"A $10 donation goes a long, long way. I also think that it's important to keep talking about it even after the emergency because any day, even around the world, 22,000 kids under the age of five die in completely preventable causes everyday. And that's not during just an emergency, that's during any given day of the year."
And through the rumblings of aching stomachs, a harsh economy, and "by-chance" education, the spirits of Somalians are of hope and faith.
"This is a very strong people in general. I've been impressed with the women and the extent they'll go to, to save their children's lives," reveals Marsh. "There is definitely a desire to help themselves and a toughness of spirit, but they can't do it alone. They definitely need help."
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