Read More - Politico Playbook: Crisis in the Horn of Africa
CRISIS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA - Dr. Bill Frist, former Senate majority leader, telephoned Playbook after returning from a trip with Dr. Jill Biden to a famine refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border: "The Horn of Africa is undergoing the most acute food-security emergency in the last 25 years - 29,000 kids have died in the last 90 days. The response to the crisis is improving globally, but the magnitude is outstripped the supplies. ... Two issues that I'm stressing: Number one, lives can be saved by both individual Americans, and taxpayers through our government responding and investing. And, number two, our long-term investments over the last 10 years, through the USAID, in the Horn of Africa, have paid off. ... "Dr. Biden is very effective in listening, observing, listening, asking questions, and representing the United States in terms of concern and commitment of support. Because she's not in the political hotbed, for me, who's out of politics, she was a perfect leader for the delegation. ... I have visited refugee camps in Chad and Darfur ... The striking difference here is the lack of access in Somalia, because of a dysfunctional government. There's no access to the millions of people in Somalia, where the famine is worst. Therefore, the refugees all have to go to Ethiopia and Kenya, where there is economic stress and environmental stress. ... The crowding in the refugee camps has resulted in pneumonia and a very rare skin disorder, ictchyosis. The kids are dying of pneumonia and diarrheal diseases. ... Individuals who do want to invest, the easiest place to go is USAID.gov, which has a list of nongovernment organizations."
Read More - FGHL Blog: Julie Shelton - In the Casualty Ward: Helping and Healing in Kijabe, Kenya
I have been in Kijabe for almost three weeks and today is the first day I received a hard and fast sign that I am in a developing country. No power. No explanation. On one minute then off the next. It happened in the OR – just a blink – but serves as a reminder that as much as there is available here in Kijabe, more than in many other hospitals in Kenya, it is still a tenuous resource. One that is dependent on the hard work of so many to keep things running as smoothly as possible so that the lights stay on, the available suture will be strong enough to hold a knot, and blood will be available for the patient with anemia who needs to have his spleen out.
Read More - From Inside Dadaab Refuge Complex: What is Working, What is Not
Yesterday, I visited the Dadaab Refugee Complex in eastern Kenya with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. While there, we heard stories from mothers with their children who had lost their husbands. Families who had journeyed for weeks to arrive at the camp malnourished and in dire need of medical assistance. And, worst of all, parents who had heartbreaking stories of losing children in the flight from famine in Somalia.
Read More - August 9: eNewsletter -- Frist, Biden Travel to Horn of Africa to Visit Refugee Camps
This week I traveled with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden to refugee camps in eastern Kenya along the Somali border to witness the impact of the most acute food security emergency on earth. We need your help, and your help I promise will make a difference.

Yesterday we visited intake centers just on the border where over 1,500 Somalis who walked for weeks with their starving children (over 29,000 young children have died of malnutrition and disease in Somalia alone over the past 90 days) arrive each day to find food and a safe place to live. But the camps are at capacity (the Dadaab camp has 430,000 refugees today; it was designed for 90,000) and new arrivals are left to fend for themselves on the outskirts of the camp.
Read More - Frist Writes from Plane, en Route to East Africa with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden
Over 29,000 young children have died of malnutrition and disease in Somalia over the past 90 days. We are now on our way to the Horn of Africa to see what more we as a nation can do.

Early this morning, our plane left Washington DC bound for East Africa. I’m flying with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Raj Shah to study the famine affecting the lives of over 12 million people, many of them children.

In fact, it is now being called “The Children’s Famine.”
Read More - FGHL Blog: Megan Quinn - Community Clean Up: Talking Trash in Munsieville for cleaner water, cleaner homes
When thinking about public health in the developed world, we generally think about preventing chronic disease through behavior change. However, in Mshenguville (the informal settlement/shack town in Munsieville), the public health needs are drastically different and much more basic. One of the key issues in Mshenguville is the need for basic sanitation/waste management. Illegal dumping around various sites in Mshenguville occurs because people do not think that there other alternatives and do not understand the consequences of poor sanitation.
Read More - The Famine in the Horn of Africa

by Jenny Eaton Dyer, Ph.D.

The numbers are staggering. Over 12 million people are reported to be in dire need of food and clean water. And more continue to trickle in daily to the refugee camps. Somalia has seen famines before, but this is said to be the worst. Perhaps the greatest crisis of the decade.

Today, Mohammad Ibrahim writes about the emergency in the NYT, "Somalis Waste Away as Insurgents Block Escape from Famine."

It is an extremely complex and difficult situation. Aid agencies are having trouble getting into and providing care for the most vunerable. Governmental funding is especially and desperately needed to avert the loss of millions of lives. 

How can you help? For starters, support Save the Children.

East Africa Drought and Food Crisis: A dollar a day for 100 days can help us keep a child alive. Give online at www.savethechildren.org/food-crisis-6 or text "SURVIVE" to 20222 to donate $10 (Standard message rates apply)

Recommended Reading: "Global Food Crisis Takes Heavy Toll in East Africa," by Samuel Loewenberg, in The Lancet.

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