As the civil war in Libya dominates news headlines this week, the State Department reminds us that U.S. efforts to fight famine in the Horn of Africa continue even as the media focus has shifted away. How is the U.S. responding to the famine crisis? Secretary Clinton explained the U.S. response in remarks to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI):
The United States is the largest single-country contributor of food and humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa. On Monday, President Obama announced that in light of the current crisis, we are making available an additional $105 million in emergency funding. Today, I’m announcing another 17 million on top of that with 12 million designed specifically for helping the people of Somalia. That brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to the region to more than $580 million this year. We are reaching more than 4.6 million people with this aid. It helps to pay for food distribution; for therapeutic feeding for those who are severely malnourished; for clean water, healthcare, sanitation, protection, and other services for those in need. And let me say how grateful I am to the aid workers who are delivering this assistance, swiftly and effectively, in extremely difficult and often dangerous circumstances.
The State Department blog Dipnote has her entire speech posted online, it’s well worth a read for anyone with a desire to understand the full range of U.S. efforts underway to not only deliver aid but to also address the causes and consequences of famine.
One of the initiatives Clinton highlighted was the text-based donation program. I was very impressed with how easy it is for individual Americans to donate directly to famine relief with this system. As with the Haiti earthquake and other recent disasters, you can send a donation from your mobile device and have it billed to your service provider. Simply text AID to 27722 to donate $10 to help those affected by famine in Africa. Many international problems seem so immense and complex it’s nice to know that there is something simple that you can do to help.
