Have now reached Sololo in the far north of Kenya very near the Ethiopian border. I made a similar trip, driving north along the Somali border during the 2006 drought, and this time I was struck by how few animals we saw. It is clear that many people have not been able to restock after the last major drought and those that did have lost a very high proportion of their herds.

We met a man yesterday at a small reservoir known as a water pan, who arrived with his 30 cattle. He told us that he had 3,000 when this crisis began. That water pan was likely to last another 15 days and after that he fully expected to lose his remaining 30 cattle because they were now too weak from hunger to walk to the next pan or borehole.

As one of the few sources of water in the area, this water pan was crowded with hundreds of animals, mostly camels and goats, which are hardier than cattle. People breed cattle because they provide milk and command a higher value than goats in times of rain.

The political chaos in neighbouring Somalia means that we do not know for sure how many people are suffering the effects of the same drought there. We can only estimate based on the huge numbers who are arriving at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and Dolo Ado in Ethiopia.

I have worked in Somalia in the past and there is no excuse for people being forced to flee their homes in search of emergency relief because humanitarian agencies are being targeted by Al Shabaab and other armed groups.

ACT is about to begin trucking water to fill tanks for communities in Kenya that have little or no water left. We are also supporting local technicians to make sure that the overstretched boreholes are equipped with spare parts and are kept in good repair.

We will also pay people a market rate for their remaining cattle so they do not lose everything and are in a position to restock when the rains return in October.

Such simple initiatives could easily be replicated in Somalia allowing people to stay where they are instead of making a long and dangerous trek across the border into Kenya. All belligerents in Somalia must allow unfettered access for humanitarian agencies so that they can provide much-needed emergency relief without fear of attack or repercussions.

It is fantastic that some agencies are managing to work in Somalia, but it is crucial that more are allowed to enter and work freely.

In Kenya the drought problem is just as bad, but the government here welcomes the international relief effort and works closely alongside it. The scale of the problem and financial constraints hinder work in Kenya, but at least politics does not.

ACT Alliance's work in Dadaab is carried out by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which manages the camp.

Nick Guttmann is head of emergency relief at ACT member Christian Aid.

The United Nations describes the situation in the region as the most severe food security emergency in the world today, with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network warning that the response is “inadequate to prevent a further deterioration”. Levels of severe, acute malnutrition in this area, particularly among children, are also of great concern.

The mix of drought, skyrocketing food prices, food shortages, deaths of livestock in large numbers and conflict in Somalia has led to a massive increase in the number of new arrivals each day in Dadaab refugee camp, run by ACT Alliance, on the Kenya-Somalia border.

The camp receives about 1300 people daily, mostly women with children and elderly people. The noticeable influx of people fleeing the drought began at the end of May, swelling an already overcrowded camp that is now home to 370,000.

The camp opened 20 years ago to shelter 90,000 people displaced by the war in Somalia. At the time, a family of five lived on a plot of land the same size as a small house. Since late 2008, UNHCR has had to put second families on each plot land. And then third families.

In just the last three years, the fighting in Somalia has pushed the camp population up by 85 percent, putting immense pressure on aid, the environment and straining relations between refugees and residents of nearby towns.

Camp officials are now unable to register all arrivals, although everyone receives food. More than 42,000 new arrivals are forced to take shelter outside the camp boundaries because the camp is unable to accommodate them. The number grows by the day.

“People are arriving exhausted and dehydrated. Between 20 and 30 children malnourished children die every month soon after reaching the camp.”

Lennart Hernander, speaking on behalf of ACT, says people are arriving at Dadaab noticeably malnourished, and that between 20 and 30 children die of malnutrition in the camp each month. “In June, it was obvious just by passing through the graveyard that there were new children’s graves.

“When people arrive, they are exhausted from walking and often dehydrated. We are seeing more older people which is unusual. The elderly tend to stay put in their homes until things get really bad,” Hernander said.

Some new arrivals had travelled from as far as Mogadishu, in some cases on foot over 1000km, with the malnutrition rates among new arrivals reaching 15 percent.

The United Nations says that throughout the Horn of Africa, more than 10 million people need emergency aid, with Kenya and Ethiopia recorded as having the largest number - 3.2 million each- hungry. The UN predicts there could be famine in some of the worst drought affected areas by September.

On July 7, it was reported that Islamist rebels had lifted a ban on humanitarian agencies supplying food aid to millions of Somalis.

ACT members in the region say they have never seen such a crisis in their lives, with one member of staff saying “things are changing by the hour and the situation has never been this bad.”

In the two worst-affected countries, Kenya and Ethiopia, ACT is distributing food and supplementary feeding for children, the elderly and nursing mothers, improving existing water supplies and trucking in water to some areas. In the longer term, ACT will be looking to rehabilitate pastures, ponds and water points, re-stock goat and sheep herds and grow animal feed.

But that will only happen when the current hunger crisis is over. For now ACT’s priorities are to meet people’s urgent need for food, clean water, shelter and medicine and to join forces with other aid agencies, UN bodies and governments in order to reach as many as possible of the 10 million people who risk starving to death.

Governments and aid agencies are meeting to prioritise needs. Some ACT members are also lobbying governments in the region to declare national disasters as they mount their responses to the crisis.

ACT's work in Dadaab is carried out by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which manages the camp.

For more information go to the ACT Alert Reference Number: 21/2011

Famine has swept through two areas of Somalia, the United Nations officially declares today, confirming the analysis of ACT agencies working in the country.

While the announcement refers to the Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia, ACT predicts that the entire south will face famine within the next two months. There is ample evidence that millions of people in Somalia already have little or no access to food, are acutely malnourished and are at risk of starvation within months, says the 78-member Somalia NGO Consortium, in which ACT participates. More than 3.7 million Somalis, or half of the entire population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. In some areas in south central Somalia, more than half of the population is malnourished - of whom more than one in four is severely malnourished.

UN coordinating network OCHA estimates that as many as ten million people are now affected by drought and food shortages accross the Horn of Africa. The situation is described as the worst for 60 years. Somalia, where ACT is now hard at work distributing food to over 30,000 people, is one of the worst affected.

Aid underway
"We are already underway in our efforts to distribute 262 tonnes of flour and 52 tonnes of cooking oil to the hardest-hit areas of Gedo province in Somalia. This first delivery will assist over 30,000 people in four villages for around a month. However, needs are huge. We received over US $700,000 from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs towards Somalia earlier this year, but we are now applying for more," explains Gaim Kebreab, representing ACT in Somalia and Kenya.

He describes a situation under which people are beoming increasingly desperate now that their crops have dried out and died, and animals are now dying in large numbers.

"Food prices have exploded this last year, and for many, the need for food and water is acute," says Kebreab.

An assessment team was sent last week to the affected areas to evaluate the situation and plan a relief effort. ACT has worked in this region of Africa for decades, and has a strong local network of partner organisations on the ground that can ensure a rapid and effective response.

Towards famine
ACT raised the alarm about the dramatically deteriorating situation accross Africa's Horn three months ago, but it has taken time for the international community to respond. Hunger and drought are far from a new phenomenon in this part of Africa, but now that two rains in a row have failed at the same time as food prices have increased, the threat of famine is very real in the worst-affected areas.

"The population of Somalia, and accross the region, need all the help they can get right now," says Kebreab.

ACT is working in Somalia's Gedo province through its member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

Contact:
Gaim Kebreab, area representative for Somalia/Kenya, tel. +254 733 609 936
NCA press hotline: +47 932 42 493

Last Tuesday’s earthquake killed 1,994 people and injured 12,000, as well as leaving hundreds of others missing in one of the poorest regions in western China. Rescue teams and relief efforts are hampered by thin air, at 60% oxygen density, which is giving rescuers altitude sickness. There are also transport difficulties to the remote region.

Amity Foundation distributing relief
ACT member Amity Foundation, coordinating with the Chinese authorities, is continuing to distribute emergency relief, including quilts, food and water to help people survive in some of the worst-hit areas.

The people of Yushu are being accommodated in one of four designated shelter areas – a stadium, a forested area, a horse-racing track and an open area outside town – or living in the open air beside the remains of their houses. People are building their own emergency shelters using salvaged materials.

Speaking from the small Tibetan village of Hong Wei, He Wen, Assistant General Secretary of Amity, said all the houses in the cluster of villages there were badly damaged. Residents are forced to spend the nights outside, many of them sleeping on the ground. Most families have received a little basic food and water assistance. Damage to water supplies means that the villagers have to walk 3km to fetch water.

Electric supply is cut
Lack of electricity continues to be a problem and Amity is planning to request support for solar-powered systems as part of the crisis phase response, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable households, schools and hospitals.

The Chinese government has mounted a strong relief operation, with a focus on search and rescue, with the army, police and local people. But they, too, are hindered by the distances to deliver aid quickly.

Others bringing assistance include the Chinese Red Cross, local non-governmental organisations and private companies. Their assistance is also important to fill the gaps, explains He Wen.

He Wen said the people of the area were enduring temperatures as low as 17°C, and had little fuel or quilts for warmth. “It’s very, very cold, so people are just wearing heavy coats... we need quilts".

Before the earthquake Amity was well-known in the region, working with communities on bio-gas and solar energy projects for cooking and lighting.

The birth of McAnley cheered her some, but Sylsalve, who worked as a vendor and now lives at a displacement site in the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, is faced with supporting her infant son and three other children. She has no immediate prospects for work. She retains some hope for her infant son, saying that “everything that comes his way will be good.” But life right now is hard, she said tersely and dispassionately, continuing to cradle McAnley.

Sylsalve's dispiriting experiences and lament are all too common in Haiti today, and the assistance being provided by the ACT Alliance in Belair – including tents, water, hygiene and baby kits – while needed and appreciated, is only a first step toward recovery. Another is in providing psychosocial support – the process by which those who have been traumatized begin to resume normal life.

Martial art as therapy

Sylsalve’s displacement site has a long association with the Brazilian organization Viva Rio, which is supported by ACT members working in Port-au-Prince. One of the psychosocial programs for children involves the practice of capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art taught by Viva Rio staff that is used as therapy for young people recovering from trauma. Drawing is another form of trauma therapy.

On a recent afternoon, several children involved in the program gathered and talked about their experiences. Capoeira was generally more popular than drawing – seven-year-old Ricardo Jacques and 10-year-old Mario Pierre said the dancing and exercise of capoeira made them feel good – “ready for the future,” Pierre said. But Jean Ritson Mertilus, 9, said he preferred drawing because it was more peaceful than capoeria.

Are you hungry, you get angry

The need for survivors to find some semblance of normality and peace under-girds the ACT members’ plans for adult psychosocial programs. Bjorg Roedland, a Norwegian nurse and a consultant with ACT/Norwegian Church Aid, acknowledges that psychosocial work is not what survivors like Sylsalve need immediately. “If the people don’t have food, how can they do other things?” Roedland said. “They have lost a lot of weight. They get angry if they don’t eat. You have to start with the basics. “ But dealing with trauma must eventually be addressed, especially in areas where Port-au-Prince residents, particularly women and children, were vulnerable before the earthquake.

Stealing children

Fear of sex trafficking is one concern, as are rape and sexual abuse. Compounding the need for protection of Haitians is the fear that children may be trafficked out of Haiti as orphans, as evidenced by the recent arrest of a group of US citizens for attempting to take Haitian children into the neighboring Dominican Republic.

A U.S. government report on trafficking notes that as many as 300,000 Haitians, ages six to 14, were trafficked in 2008. Many were forced to work as domestic servants both here and overseas. The report noted a “sharp increase” in the number of Haitian children trafficked for the sex trade.

Roedland said ACT Alliance staff in Haiti are working with local partners and community leaders, as well as with the Haitian government, to ensure that children most vulnerable to trafficking are identified and protected.

The scars you can’t see

Trafficking is just one worry. There is also the ever-present possibility of another earthquake in Haiti. Tremors are felt daily even now, three weeks later. “Their fear is increasing. It’s in their stomach all the time. When the aftershocks come, it’s right there,” Roedland said. “They are starting their lives over again. But some people can’t handle this, and our most important job now is to identify those people who can’t resume their lives.”

Adults bear the most psychological scars; children seem more resilient, though that also depends on a number of factors. “If the mother and father are there, they can cope,” Roedland said. “But if the parents are missing, it’s much more difficult for the children.”

The children involved in the ACT-supported programs spoke about their lives with a poignant mixture of sadness and optimism. Though none lost immediate family, all realize the enormity of what has happened in Haiti. “Too many people died in our country,” said Mario Pierre. Asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, 10-year-old Nacilien Josue replied, “Become a ship captain.” Why? “To bring in medical supplies.”

ACT's Paul Jeffrey contributed to this report. See his photos from Belair at: http://www.act-intl.org/haitiphotos/25Jan2010/index.html

GENEVA — Concerts on national TV, online donations, spectacular auctions, fundraising dinners and extra church collections are among the methods ACT Alliance has used to raise funds for Haiti.  And they have produced results.

Perhaps the most pragmatic and humbling effort have come from the staff of Lutheran World Service in India.  They have offered one day’s salary for the people of Haiti. “The decision was unanimously taken in a discussion about how to show solidarity with Haiti,” said Dr Vijayakumar James, executive director of LWS. 

Now the ACT members ask for more. US member Church World Service has appealed to the Wall Street finance executives to donate ten percent of their bonuses to Haiti.

"Now is the perfect moment for executives in the financial sector to make an equally powerful statement about corporate social responsibility, by tithing their bonuses towards the longer and arduous challenge of redeveloping Haiti," says the CWS Director, Rev. John L. McCullough. The campaign is called Bonus4Haiti. “It might seed money to jump-start the reconstruction," he says.

Gospel and hip-hop

In Denmark, top gospel singers joined forces to create a music hit for Haiti. The song was recorded over one weekend and made available on YouTube. "The inspiration for the song came when I saw a news report from Haiti, where a man was jammed in a wall. When he was asked how he felt, he replied quite calmly that he had prayed to God and trusted that his prayer was heard," says promoter Julie Lindell."We pray that many will just buy the song by downloading it for three US dollars. DanChurchAid urgently needs money to get safe water, sanitation, shelter and food to earthquake victims." (The song is now available for free at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JMxOsl0ny0)

Danish international prize winning hip-hop group Outlandish donated scarves and caps to DanChurchAid for auction. We immediately thought we would give support and we therefore contacted DanChurchAid to hear if we could donate some effects from our greatest video to date - Aicha - and include them in an auction," said singer Waqas Qadri.

All over the world

In Australia, the Lutheran Church of Australia campaigned with posters, phone and online donations and established photo galleries of Haiti. All supporters were mailed. New information about the Haiti situation is spread every day.  The church emailed all pastors and schools within the Lutheran Church of Australia within 36 hours

The Canadian Lutheran World Relief had fundraising dinners, concerts, bazaars and volunteers are taking phone donations.

In the UK, Christian Aid is using its popular website to raise funds for Haiti.  It also advertised in the UK press and worked closely with other humanitarian organisations.

In the US, the overwhelming outpouring continues to set new standards, especially in New Orleans. Churches there have decided to have a special Haiti offering the first Sunday of each month in 2010. It is more than four years since Hurricane Katrina, and the churches continue to rebuild from devastation, destruction and pain. Now they are deeply affected by what has happened in Haiti.

Church of Sweden has raised funds among members and parishes by taking collections, and using SMS campaigns, direct mail and media. The church has also received huge donations from the government. 

Finn Church Aid organised a fundraising concert in the Cathedral of Helsinki, which was broadcast on a national television channel at prime time last Sunday. Finnish President Tarja Halonen was among the churchgoers.

Waive the Haiti debt

Members of ACT Alliance have appealed to their national governments to waive Haiti’s debt. They say they find it immoral to expect Haiti to pay back its loans while the international society is spending millions on relief to the same country.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – As she waited in a food distribution  line late last week, Marie Therese, newly widowed and bereaved,  patient but tired, tersely summed up Haiti’s current plight.

Though thankful for the assistance from CWS and the ACT Alliance reaching her and others in the village of Gressier, Therese, 51, said: “It’s like we’re in a desert.”

In the nearly three weeks since the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti has indeed felt like it is a land bereft of much that makes for a dignified life.

Port-au-Prince’s downtown area, hit hardest by the quake, still looks and feels as if the disaster happened just days ago. Homes and apartments are crushed; the smell of rotting flesh wafts through the air; and the sides of some buildings jut out and look as if they are ready to fall into the street at any moment.

It is startling to see a building cut in half, with furniture and desks, filing cabinets and sinks suddenly exposed to the harsh midday sunlight – just as it is to see thousands of people, suddenly displaced, living in the makeshift displacement camps within and outside the capital city.

Yet the capacity of Haitians to embrace elements of normalcy is encouraging beyond words. That means dressing in your Sunday best to attend worship, offering a hand to neighbors or visitors, or as barber Charilien Charles, 25, has done, reestablish his business, complete with quake-cracked mirrors, within one of Port-au-Prince’s sprawling displacement camps.

Is business good? “Unpredictable,” Charles said, shrugging his shoulders, saying he has to be patient.

Unpredictability and patience are also watch words as the international community continues its role in providing humanitarian assistance to Haiti – an effort that by all accounts was slow in starting and is still not seamless, given the many daunting challenges that faced Haiti before and immediately following the quake.

 “The devastation is beyond comprehension,” said Martin Coria, Latin  America/Caribbean regional coordinator for Church World Service and ACT, reiterating a point that is probably all too well known by now but which must be stressed given the logistical difficulties in getting aid to disaster survivors.

Something else that needs repeating is that aid workers themselves continue to live in the streets because of the wide-spread devastation, according to Sylvia Raulo, country representative in Haiti for ACT/Lutheran World Federation. “Everyone here is dealing with this loss of life,” Raulo said.

Raulo knows that, three weeks into the response, donors are rightly concerned about whether aid is getting to those who need it, a concern she says is both legitimate and welcome.

 “We are accountable, first and foremost, to the survivors living in Haiti, and then to those abroad giving and pledging money,” she said. While Raulo said exact numbers of those receiving assistance are still being compiled, between 40,000 and 50,000 persons have been in assisted by CWS-supported ACT programs in the last three weeks in efforts that have included providing water, food, shelter and psycho-social assistance.

Future efforts will focus on reconstruction of homes and schools, and on long-term food security – part of the ACT Alliance’s commitment and mandate “to look beyond immediate emergencies,” she said.

Raulo does not downplay challenges, either in Haiti or with the response. Aid efforts will have to deal with problems like government corruption and the unpredictability of events.

The Saturday (Jan. 31) distribution in Gressier, located some 20 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, by LWF aid workers was proof that situations are not predictable, especially when people in rural areas find themselves in desperate situations.

A group of young men who were not on a list of recipients earlier compiled by LWF workers tried to disrupt the distribution that included food from Haiti and non-food items from CWS and ACT members in Finland.

 Local police also demanded tents that were being distributed and did little to control the crowd; the young LWF workers stood their ground and continued to direct aid to those who had been identified as particularly vulnerable, including families with pregnant women and young children.

Eventually, the crowd got unruly and a policewoman fired two shots in the air. The distribution was disrupted and LWF staff left the village, frustrated that their efforts had not gone as planned. “Yes, it’s complicated,” said distribution coordinator Sheyla Durandisse.  “There is a lot of pressure on the team.”

Fellow aid worker Emmanuela Blain, who had been at another LWF distribution a day earlier, admitted she and other aid workers were frustrated. “Yesterday we had a distribution that was perfect. Perfect.”

Raulo, who praised LWF workers for their patience in a difficult situation, said the problems in Gressier have to be seen in context –  in a situation that can seem like it is bereft of hope. “People are traumatized,” she said, “and we know how people can react in these types of situations.”

Still, she said, one unassailable fact has emerged in the last three weeks, particularly given a history of weak state structures. “Haitians are an extremely resilient people.”

As it had done long before January 12, ACT is caring for the children. Traumatized, ill and suffering loss of limbs, hundreds of children need round-the-clock care.

At Port-au-Prince’s Aprosifa malnutrition clinic, which is supported by ACT, staff feed 15-20 children and their mothers every day. The dedication of Antonine St Quitte Dimanche, who has worked at the clinic 12 years, has not diminished since the earthquake. She continues to make sure the children get enriched milk, spinach, beans and rice every day. The most severely malnourished are given plumpy nuts, a specially formulated paste full of essential vitamins and minerals.

But she fears for the future of these children. “There are so many children now without parents and those whose parents survived now have no means of earning a living.”

Dorotie Pierre still brings her nine-month-old son Thierry to the clinic every day, despite being reduced to sleeping on old blankets outdoors after losing everything. Thierry’s father was killed in the earthquake, making life for the family even tougher. “If the rains come, I don’t know what I will do,” Dorotie said.

Elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, another children’s malnutrition hospital is being kept open with ACT support. But now it is running as an emergency clinic as injured men, women and children arrive daily.  The clinic has 100 beds but 140 patients. ACT has supplied two large tents for those recovering from surgery.

One of the younger patients, six-year-old Kevine Scemoaes is about to have surgery on a badly injured foot. He has a high temperature but is in a good mood as he tells his story. Walking through the streets of Haiti, the earthquake toppled a wall, burying him. He wriggled free but found he couldn’t walk because of his injured leg. Kevine crawled to the middle of the street and cried for help until he was brought to the hospital.

In Kevine’s ward, five-year-old Melunda Bregar suffers severe head and back injuries. On top of that, she says nothing. Shock has left her unable to speak. Her mother sits besides her praying, a copy of the New Testament with her. 

The level of treatment at the hospital is high, even as surgery goes on around the clock. Most of the surgeons are Italian or American. Most cases are bone fractures, and able to be treated. The hospital is treating around 40 cases of complex fractures of the upper leg. 

And a lot of amputations. Rezil Fabila is in pain, having lost her right leg, as did Franck Mickelsen.  Despite his difficult situation he smiles at visitors. A young boy who lost both arms walks around with his mother for the first time since surgery. The atmosphere in the clinic is relaxed, but staff say they are depressed when they see children with amputated limbs.

The good news that people are still able to access healthcare comes as the Haitian government says it will need international support for at least five to 10 years to help recover from this month's devastating earthquake. Reuters reports that donors have decided to hold an urgent international pledging conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York in March. Meanwhile, authorities are trying to relocate at least 400,000 survivors in temporary tent villages outside the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince.