EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Last summer, Somalia was hit with one of the biggest droughts the area had had in about fifty years, leading to a devastating hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa consists of countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Many Somalis are fleeing to Dadaab, a camp in Kenya, that is overpopulated by about 300,000 thousand people. About half of the children who arrive at the camp are malnourished. On the World Food Programme’s IPC scale (which is used to measure food crisis severeness levels on a scale of ‘1’ to ‘5’), parts of the Horn rank as a ‘4’ while others rank at a ‘5.’ The appeal by the United Nations to raise money for the citizens in the Horn has only been partially funded. So far, it has been estimated that about 29,000 people have perished because of this devastating crisis.
The hunger crisis in Africa has driven hundreds and thousands of people from their homes, and has taken too many innocent lives. In order to build a long-term solution for this issue, we need fully-funded safety net programs, but until then, we can try our best to fund food and shelter for the Somalis.
The Somalian Hunger Crisis Organization (or the SHCO) is non-profit and wants to help improve Africa’s hunger security, by selling merchandise at our store, and also using the advertisements on our page to help fund our organization. Some of the merchandise includes t-shirts, canvas tote bags, and mugs with our logo. People who want to help support our cause can also donate on our website, www.hungerinthehorn.org.
We’ll also set up food banks in major cities across the country, so that people can donate food to be shipped off to different areas in the Horn. Our organization needs as many volunteers and donors we can get our hands on.
DESIRED SOCIAL IMPACT:
Men, women, and children live impoverished and malnourished all over the Horn of Africa. Hunger in this region, like hunger in other regions of the world, isn’t going to be gone overnight, as it has affected about 13 million people. It’s not going to fade away as it the coverage it gets in the media fades away, or as less and less people care about it. According to the WFP’s website, about 32% of Somalia’s population needs aid.
The desired social impact our organization wants to have is to:
Desired Social Impact 1 Providing Medical Care
According to the World Food Programme’s website, about 2.4 million people in Somalia need humanitarian assistance. With starvation comes a lot of diseases related to lack of proper nutrition, included anemia, scurvy, and Vitamin A deficiency.
UNICEF also states that the mortality rates among young children in Somalia is rather high compared to other parts of the world. Some diseases that are responsible for 50% of child deaths include diarrhoel disease-related dehydration, malaria, and respiratory infections, and because of overall poor natal and pre-natal care, the infant mortality rate is 1,044 for every 100,000 births.
The poor medical treatment given at those overcrowded camps mentioned earlier also account for high rates of tuberculosis in Somalia.
Desired Social Impact 2 Providing Food
Providing food to the Somalis for very obvious reasons. Due to the drought, many crops have failed and the Somalis could not feed themselves or their livestock. Millions of Somalis need assistance right now. According to UNICEF, 36% of children under the age of five in Somalia are severely or moderately underweight.
Desired Social Impact 3 Providing Shelter
As mentioned earlier, hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been displaced in the overflooded camps in Dadaab, Kenya, due to literally having nowhere else to go.
UNICEF’s website gives an overall statistic of 700,000 people who have been displaced by the drought.
And, more recently in the news, the Somalis are now facing additional hardships as civil war breaks out in their country between the government and the al-Qaida allies, the al-Shabaab group, so even more Somalis are fleeing to Ethiopia now.
Desired Social Impact 4 Education
Education is power. Despite the hardships that the Horn is facing right now, we want these children to someday become powerful leaders of their countries, and in order for the country to progress, we need to educate these children.
Last summer, Somalia was hit with one of the biggest droughts the area had had in about fifty years, leading to a devastating hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa consists of countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Many Somalis are fleeing to Dadaab, a camp in Kenya, that is overpopulated by about 300,000 thousand people. About half of the children who arrive at the camp are malnourished. On the World Food Programme’s IPC scale (which is used to measure food crisis severeness levels on a scale of ‘1’ to ‘5’), parts of the Horn rank as a ‘4’ while others rank at a ‘5.’ The appeal by the United Nations to raise money for the citizens in the Horn has only been partially funded. So far, it has been estimated that about 29,000 people have perished because of this devastating crisis.
The hunger crisis in Africa has driven hundreds and thousands of people from their homes, and has taken too many innocent lives. In order to build a long-term solution for this issue, we need fully-funded safety net programs, but until then, we can try our best to fund food and shelter for the Somalis.
The Somalian Hunger Crisis Organization (or the SHCO) is non-profit and wants to help improve Africa’s hunger security, by selling merchandise at our store, and also using the advertisements on our page to help fund our organization. Some of the merchandise includes t-shirts, canvas tote bags, and mugs with our logo. People who want to help support our cause can also donate on our website, www.hungerinthehorn.org.
We’ll also set up food banks in major cities across the country, so that people can donate food to be shipped off to different areas in the Horn. Our organization needs as many volunteers and donors we can get our hands on.
DESIRED SOCIAL IMPACT:
Men, women, and children live impoverished and malnourished all over the Horn of Africa. Hunger in this region, like hunger in other regions of the world, isn’t going to be gone overnight, as it has affected about 13 million people. It’s not going to fade away as it the coverage it gets in the media fades away, or as less and less people care about it. According to the WFP’s website, about 32% of Somalia’s population needs aid.
The desired social impact our organization wants to have is to:
- Provide medical care to the people of the Horn of Africa, so that proper treatment can be given throughout the entire region when medical attention is needed.
- Provide food to the people of the Horn of Africa, so that hopefully, eventual hunger relief can be found with these people.
- Provide shelter, since the camp where all of the Somalis are fleeing to in Dadaab is becoming overpopulated by about 300,000 people and counting
- Provide education to Somalia’s children
Desired Social Impact 1 Providing Medical Care
According to the World Food Programme’s website, about 2.4 million people in Somalia need humanitarian assistance. With starvation comes a lot of diseases related to lack of proper nutrition, included anemia, scurvy, and Vitamin A deficiency.
UNICEF also states that the mortality rates among young children in Somalia is rather high compared to other parts of the world. Some diseases that are responsible for 50% of child deaths include diarrhoel disease-related dehydration, malaria, and respiratory infections, and because of overall poor natal and pre-natal care, the infant mortality rate is 1,044 for every 100,000 births.
The poor medical treatment given at those overcrowded camps mentioned earlier also account for high rates of tuberculosis in Somalia.
Desired Social Impact 2 Providing Food
Providing food to the Somalis for very obvious reasons. Due to the drought, many crops have failed and the Somalis could not feed themselves or their livestock. Millions of Somalis need assistance right now. According to UNICEF, 36% of children under the age of five in Somalia are severely or moderately underweight.
Desired Social Impact 3 Providing Shelter
As mentioned earlier, hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been displaced in the overflooded camps in Dadaab, Kenya, due to literally having nowhere else to go.
UNICEF’s website gives an overall statistic of 700,000 people who have been displaced by the drought.
And, more recently in the news, the Somalis are now facing additional hardships as civil war breaks out in their country between the government and the al-Qaida allies, the al-Shabaab group, so even more Somalis are fleeing to Ethiopia now.
Desired Social Impact 4 Education
Education is power. Despite the hardships that the Horn is facing right now, we want these children to someday become powerful leaders of their countries, and in order for the country to progress, we need to educate these children.
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