Canadian Foodgrains Bank is committing an additional $775,000 in response to the ongoing El Nino-related drought in Ethiopia and southern Africa.
“Our members and their partners in Ethiopia and in Zambia are continuing to tell us of the many families continuing to struggle due to failed crops,” says Foodgrains Bank International Programs Director Barbara Macdonald.
“In response, we are continuing to increase our programming, as we’re able,” she says.
In Zambia, Foodgrains Bank member World Renew is distributing maize, beans, oil and salt to 2,500 households a month for three months. The project total is $175,000.
In the Oromia region of Ethiopia, Foodgrains Bank member Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace—Caritas Canada, will be providing emergency food rations to 10,000 people a month for six months through a project totaling $600,000.
The Oromia region has been particularly hard hit by the drought. People in this area are usually able to provide for their own needs through rain-fed agriculture.
The failure of the rains through the last two cropping seasons have led them to require outside assistance.
Also in the Oromia region, Foodgrains Bank member World Renew is planning to commit an additional two months of emergency food supplies for people living in the Dugda district.
In Ethiopia alone, roughly 10 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. In southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland, about 14 million people are in need of assistance due to the El Nino.
“The effects this drought is having on people is devastating,” says Macdonald. “But at the same time it is important to remember all the other ongoing emergencies in the world right now, including Syria and South Sudan.”
To make a donation to help communities affected by the drought in Africa, go here.
–Amanda Thorsteinsson, Communications Officer
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