FAMINE RELIEF IN SOMALIA

More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa require food assistance due to the region's worst drought in half a century, the United Nations says.
The UN says that famine exists in two regions of southern Somalia, southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Across the country, nearly half of the Somali population — 3.7 million people — are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south.
But parts of Kenya and Ethiopia are also in crisis.

Here are some key organizations that are providing aid in the region.
• CARE
The organization says it is providing food, water and primary education in the Dadaab refugee camps. Call 1-800-521-2273 or donate online.
• Mercy Corps
The global humanitarian agency is responding to the drought in the Horn of Africa with emergency operations in northeastern Kenya, and plans to build on existing work in hard-hit Ethiopia and Somalia. We will focus our efforts on the most vulnerable people in villages and towns.

Mercy Corps is currently helping 150,000 people through programs like emergency food distributions, clean water delivery and cash-for-work activities in this area.

Want to help? Click here to donate.
• UNICEF
UNICEF, the UN's children's organization, and its partners need more money to aid children in the Horn of Africa in the coming months. Immediate measures include child immunization campaigns and water and sanitation services to ward off disease.

Text FOOD to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10, enough to feed a child for 10 days or provide 321 sachets of nutrient powder to boost infant survival and development, the aid group says.
• International Committee of the Red Cross
Red Cross has launched the East Africa Drought Appeal 2011 to provide emergency relief, including food, water and health assistance.

Make donations online at www.redcross.org.au or by calling 1-800-HELPNOW.
• Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions
Executive Director Navyn Salem says, “You can very simply save a child’s life or change the course of a family’s life. It makes everything seem worthwhile and absolutely possible.” The organization has a special focus on the crisis in Somalia and is using Plumpy'nut® to "make a lasting impact and save lives." Make donations online.
• Doctors Without Borders
In Dadaab, Kenya, Doctors Without Borders says it is treating more than 2,400 children in its ambulatory therapeutic feeding program and 130 children in its inpatient therapeutic feeding center. An additional 5,047 children with moderate acute malnutrition are enrolled in a supplementary feeding program. There are now around 10,000 people in the organization's feeding program in the Dadaab camp.

Donate here or by calling 1-888-392-0392.