This month Mission Possibility ELCA’s Horn of Africa Drought Fund

Submitted by Trinity Luthera... on October 15, 2011 - 11:56am
 
The fund are going to  serve those suffering from famine in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
More than 12.4 million people have been affected by this disaster, and there are pessi-mistic projections for future rainfall. Yet most appeals for help have not been fully fund-ed. The UN appeal is 57% funded, facing a $1 billion shortfall. The Action by Churches Together Alliance, a consortium of 111 church and faith-based groups, has three separate appeals, one for Kenya (35% funded), one for Ethiopia (31% funded) and one for Soma-lia (59% funded). These funds are to provide food, water, shelter and medical attention to the region.
 
In Somalia, the famine caused by drought has been exacerbated by continued conflict and civil insecurity that makes it difficult to get much-needed aid into the country. One-quarter of the country’s population, or almost 2 million people, have left Somalia in search of aid, many moving to Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, as well as Yemen and Eri-trea, in search of food and water.
 
The ELCA is responding in partnership with Lutheran and ecumenical partners in the region. This effort is coordinated by the ACT Alliance. The ELCA, a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), has supported the humanitarian and long-term sustainable development work of the LWF Department for World Service (LWF-DWS). For many years in this region, LWS-DWS has respond-ed to post-conflict refugee needs and has invest-ed in sustainable development, promoting op-portunities for individuals to build their capacity to live in justice and dignity. Additionally, the ELCA has close church-
 to-church relationships with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) and the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC), through dialogue, service and witness.
 
The LWF manages camps in Dadaab in eastern Kenya and Dollo Ado in southeastern Ethiopia and is expanding efforts there to meet the needs of new refugees as they arrive daily. Both camps have surpassed capacity, as Somali refu-gees arrive daily. ACT also recently has gained access to camps near the city of Moga-dishu ,where Somalis who choose to stay in their own country have gathered, and is bring-ing much needed aid to these camps, where measles and cholera are on the rise because of the severe overcrowding.
 
The ELCA has opened a designated account to receive gifts for response efforts to this disaster. One hundred percent (100%) of all gifts contrib-uted to the Horn of Africa Drought Fund will be used entirely to respond to this disaster both for immediate needs and long-term rehabilitation of communities and livelihoods.