East Africa Food Crisis Emergency Appeal

How your support makes a difference

World Jewish Relief launched their East African Food Crisis emergency appeal in July 2011 to raise vital funds for those most affected not only by the famine but also for those who had been displaced and were struggling to survive in refugee camps across the Horn of Africa.

Thanks to generous donations from the community, this appeal has raised over £220,000 and is the third largest emergency appeal to date.

Working with emergency services, WJR has been able to identify where the need is at its greatest and has reacted by providing not only emergency relief, but also the tools needed for sustainability to enable people to be self reliant for many years to come.

WJR is proud to be working  together with our partners to directly help almost 17,000 children and families in Kenya and Ethiopia, helping to save lives through the following programmes. 

Supplementary Meals for School Children 

46 tonnes of UNIMIX, a high energy corn soya blend product has been distributed through our partners, the Kenya Red Cross providing 5,600 children with a supplementary (possibly their only) meal in school for 6 months.. The rations have encouraged children to remain in school and supplement their families food income in Lorengipi Primary School and Lobei Primary School in the Turkana district. The UNIMIX improves a child’s health and slows down further deterioration by providing increased energy. The feeding programme is also helping to reduce continued drop out in the targeted areas.

Greenhouse Farmers Kits

Working with the Kenya Red Cross 11,292 school pupils have benefitted from Greenhouse Farming Kits across 25 schools in Turkana North, Turkana Central and Loima District. These are produced by a Israeli company (Amiran) in Nairobi and sent to schools and health centres in northeast Kenya.   Using gravity based drip irrigation, the kits enable local food production on a sustainable basis managed by school committees. This intervention plays an integral role in drought risk reduction. In addition to food, beneficiary communties have more disposable income as a result of earnings from sale of the vegetables and can cope more easily with incoming disasters.

High protein peanut paste for severely malnourished displaced children

Working with UNICEF Kenya and UNICEF Ethiopia we distributed 15,000 sachets of high calorie peanut paste in Kenya and Ethiopia to support rapid weight gain, which can make the difference between life and death for a young child. We have 8,105 sites for the feeding programme, this ensures we are supporting a wide reaching programme.

Click here to read the blog by Christopher Tidey who works for one of WJR's partner organisation's, UNICEF Kenya after visiting the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya.

For this emergency appeal WJR is pleased to have the endorsement, support, assistance and cooperation of a broad range of Jewish communal organisations:

The Office of the Chief Rabbi, The US, Masorti Judaism, Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism, Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tzedek, JCC, Union of Jewish Students, RSY, The Federation of Synagogues, Spanish & Portuguese Jews' Congregation

WJR is a member of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, an international Jewish alliance responding to victims of the crisis in East Africa and ensuring a coordinated Jewish response.