Primary assembly

What is happening?  

What is happening? Across East Africa, 16 million people face starvation. Famine has already been declared in parts of South Sudan. People are already dying. The United Nations warns that the world faces the largest crisis like this since 1945.  

Why is it happening? Poor rainfall has led to drought and harvests have failed. In East Africa, droughts happen more and more often. This means that people have less time to recover between them. In some areas, fighting has driven people from their homes, stopping them from making a living.

How is CAFOD helping? CAFOD partners and Caritas agencies are helping in many of the areas where there are food shortages. In East Africa, we are helping in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.  

In South Sudan Fergus Conmee, CAFOD’s Head of Africa, recently returned from South Sudan: “The CAFOD team in South Sudan is making plans to provide emergency food to 12,000 people this month, but this will only meet a small part of the enormous needs.”

“You cannot let us die.” Fergus met a man called Santino Matwili who was blind, due to extreme hunger. He said: “We have not been able to grow food, as no rain has come." "Food has run out. You cannot let us die.”

Working with partners Our partners – local organisations that we support – know the communities and their needs. CAFOD is part of ‘Caritas International’ – a global Catholic network. This means we can reach remote places that other charities cannot reach.

CAFOD and DEC When there is a crisis, major aid agencies in the UK fundraise together as the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). CAFOD is part of the DEC. The DEC launched an East Africa Crisis Appeal on 15 March. The UK Government will match up to £5m of money raised.

Get involved Find out more: From the news, twitter and our website. £25 = One month’s special food for a malnourished child Find out more: From the news, twitter and our website. Tell others: Through a talk or display. Fundraise: We know how you always respond to emergencies. Thank you. Our website has lots of fundraising tips. Pray: Set up a prayer space at break or lunch. Ask people to light candles, write prayers or simply pray quietly. £60 = Clean drinking water for two families for a month £25 could provide a month’s supply of life-saving peanut paste to a malnourished child. £60 could provide clean drinking water for two families for a month. £100 could provide supplies to a clinic treating severely malnourished children for a week £100 = A week’s supplies to a clinic treating children who are malnourished

Thank you Many of you fundraised for Lent Fast Day. Thank you! Your Lenten and year-round donations help the people we work with in more than 40 countries. Thanks to you, we have already been working with many communities who are now suffering extreme hunger. But our partners and all agencies agree that we must make an appeal for East Africa now because the need is so urgent.

Let us pray Loving God, we pray for our sisters and brothers who are hungry, thirsty and afraid. We pray for everyone trying to help them. Inspire the world, and each one of us, to share what we have been given, so that everyone has enough and all your children can live life to the full. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

Credits: Photographs: David Mutua, Fergus Conmee/CAFOD Maps: d-maps Credits: Photographs: David Mutua, Fergus Conmee/CAFOD Maps: d-maps.com