Working together to end poverty and injustice

Horn of Africa food crisis 2011

Large parts of East Africa are suffering the worst food crisis of the 21st century.

Oxfam urgently need funds to help reach people with life-saving food and water. We are seriously concerned that large numbers of lives could soon be lost.

Oxfam New Zealand has launched an appeal to raise $500,000 from the public to provide assistance to the millions of people across Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya who face starvation.

Your contribution will make a huge difference in saving lives.

• Donate NOW online or call us on 0800 400 666.

The situation

A drought in the Horn of Africa is pushing over 13 million people into a fight for survival. Two successive poor rains, entrenched poverty, a lack of investment in affected areas and rocketing food prices means people have already lost virtually everything.

The crisis is only going to get worse and we urgently need funds.

Donate to the Horn of Africa food crisis appeal online now or call us on 0800 400 666.

Oxfam is there

Oxfam is there, providing people with the life-saving water, food and sanitation they desperately need to stay alive. We aim to reach 3.5 million people with our emergency response. We are also helping with long-standing threats to livelihoods, and helping to build the resilience of the communities we work with.

• In Somalia we have reached over 881,680 people. We are providing clean water to more than 329,000 Somalis in camps outside Mogadishu. We are starting cash relief programmes, and distributing seeds and agricultural tools to 18,000 people to facilitate crop growing in the event of rains in the coming months. We are also supporting a therapeutic feeding programme for children and mothers which admits more than 3,000 malnourished children every week. 56,000 children have been treated at the site this year. We are scaling up our response to reach 1.5 million people
• In Kenya, we have supported over 622,210 people with essential water, sanitation and hygiene activities as well as desperately needed food distributions and cash transfers. We are providing water and sanitation facilities in Dadaab refugee camp for more than 64,000 Somalis. We are scaling up our work in Kenya to reach 1 million people.
• In Ethiopia we have supported over 60,465 of those affected. We are digging trenches for toilets, trucking in water and preparing for the arrival of the materials to build a water treatment plant and toilets. Read more on Oxfam's response.

Donate to the Horn of Africa food crisis appeal here, or call us on 0800 400 666.

In pictures

Images from the Horn of Africa
Click on the images below to read stories from the Horn of Africa.

• Help Oxfam in your workplace
  Download Oxfam's Horn of Africa appeal poster to display in your workplace (PDF, 2.9MB).
• A Kiwi in Dadaab
  New Zealander Janna Hamilton was reporting from Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, near the border with Somalia.
• Find out more more about the crisis sweeping across Eastern Africa
  Why are millions of people facing starvation?
• In pictures: Photostories direct from the Horn of Africa
  See what life is like for affected people and Oxfam's response in our photostories.
• Blogs, media clips and videos from the field
  Find out what life is like for the millions of people affected by the drought and the latest on Oxfam's response.
• Donate to the Horn of Africa crisis online now, or call us on 0800 400 666.
• Have a voice. Join our GROW campaign and let's share ideas and solutions for a future where everyone has enough to eat, always.