By Andrew Denu | GlobalGiving Program Fellow
Happy New Year, and thank you for supporting those suffering from the devastating effects of food crises. Your donation has allowed GlobalGiving partners to address the effects of famine and drought in their communities in a myriad of ways—from loaning goats to vulnerable families to providing emergency hygiene education to halt the spread of cholera.
Since last March, when drought conditions in Africa and the Middle East led to the declaration of the largest humanitarian crisis in 70 years, progress has been made, thanks to the unrelenting work of our nonprofit partners and generous support from donors like you, who’ve raised more than $130,000 so far.
We’re proud that GlobalGiving’s nonprofit partners allow communities to become agents of their own recovery. Take the work being done in South Sudan and Yemen, for example.
While South Sudan is no longer technically experiencing a famine, 5.1 million people are at risk of being classified as severely food insecure between January and March of 2018. With climate-related events such as droughts expected to continue into this year and beyond, relief efforts must shift their focus from community dependence on short-term humanitarian assistance to long-term recovery. Alaska Sudan Medical Project in Old Fangak, South Sudan uses the model of “farm aid, not food aid” in order to build resilience and equip communities with the agricultural tools to cope with, adapt to, and manage future droughts. They’re strengthening their communities by providing farmers with holistic farming training, drought-resistant seeds, and micro-loans for large farming equipment to scale up farm production.
In Yemen, the ongoing political and military crisis is wreaking havoc on the lives of millions of people. Humanitarian assistance has been cut off to many areas of the country, resulting in chronic shortages of food and medicine, especially in the most remote areas. The Yemeni people are relying on a crumbling health system in the midst of recent cholera and diphtheria outbreaks. In response, Relief International has deployed local mobile medical teams to remote areas of Yemen, where they are treating cases of childhood malnutrition, providing family planning services, and distributing hygiene kits to help families protect themselves against disease. After seeing the impact these efforts have had, local authorities across Yemen have recently recommended all other relief agencies start mimicking the structure and modality of Relief International’s mobile medical teams in hard to reach areas.
The fight is far from over, however. For many in South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and northeast Nigeria, 2018 will bring more of the what they experienced in 2017: violent conflict, economic instability, and more climatic shocks. Millions will enter this new year teetering on the brink of famine. The situation in each of the affected countries is unique and we trust our nonprofit partners who have been working in this region for years to be in the best position to nimbly respond as their local circumstances demand.
We’ll continue to update you on our partners' progress in the months to come. Thank you again for your generosity, and for deciding to support community-led organizations in response to this ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Warmly,
Andrew Denu + the GlobalGiving Team
By Andrew Denu | Program Fellow
By Andrew Denu | Program Fellow
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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