Islamic Relief USA communications specialist Lina Hashem writes about Islamic Relief USA’s efforts for East Africa and participation in USAID’s “FWD” campaign.
Three-quarters of a million people could die in the next few months from drought and famine in East Africa, and 54% of Americans have never heard of the problem.
Zeenat Rahman, deputy director of faith-based and neighborhood initiatives at USAID, gave that figure Nov. 3 during a discussion in which Islamic Relief USA’s CEO Abed Ayoub helped kick off a campaign to save lives in East Africa.
In the weeks after famine was declared in Somalia this summer, haunting images of gaunt faces and bloated stomachs were in the news. Now, public attention has largely moved on, but the famine is still tightening its deadly grip. A catastrophic disaster is still lurking just around the corner.
We can’t move on. We can’t let the people in the drought and famine zone slip our minds, and go back to our daily routine, because they can’t go back to theirs. Their stomachs are still pinched, their feet heavy, their little children moving slower and slower on the treks in search of help.
So Islamic Relief is joining USAID and other humanitarian aid organizations in working to bring back attention to the people of East Africa—and more attention than ever before. On Nov. 9, a wide range of organizations and individuals will work together in a campaign dubbed Famine War and Drought—or FWD, aka “Forward”—to spread the word that the crisis is far from over and the people need help.
We invite YOU to join us.
So many of you have helped already.
Many of you have donated to send food and water to relieve the overwhelming hunger and thirst, and medicine to treat the illnesses that are attacking weak bodies.
You’ve talked with friends—maybe told them of families who set out with six children and arrived at camp with three.
You’ve posted the haunting pictures on your Facebook wall and maybe tweeted them too.
We want you to do it again.
Do it for Medina and Nour, who the Islamic Relief USA team met in the Siliga camp in Mogadishu on Sept. 27. This young mother and father had arrived at the camp just a few days earlier with their four children—carrying little 1-year-old Jowhara in their arms. But Jowhara was so weak from the famine that she couldn’t fight off a case of measles. The baby died.
Then Medina and Nour’s 5-year-old daughter—named Medina like her mother—came down with measles too.
Her worried father Nour told the Islamic Relief USA team, “We are very desperate—we need help.”
Do it for Fatima too.
Fatima had arrived in the Siliga camp a month earlier after a harrowing trek on foot. The weakened woman had come down with a cold … and then malaria. Too sick to go to the clinic, she was waiting for a visit from a health team.
Her husband Abdi told our team: “I want to send a message out to every good Muslim: We need help, we need help. Allah (swt) will provide for you as you help us.”
Please pass Abdi’s message on.
The goal of the campaign on Nov. 9 is to inspire 13.3 million actions on that day—one for each of the people at risk. Together with the other groups involved, we can do it. Let’s take on a few of those actions.
Do it for Fatima, for the grieving parents Medina and Nour, for their little daughter with measles.
Do it for the children whose eyes are growing dull, their voices hoarse, their lives slipping away.
Your effort can help save a life, a family.
Sa’adiya has seen it happen.
As the Siliga camp manager, she’s seen the way the new arrivals get stronger as soon as they have regular meals to eat, and she now has more medicine to give out at the camp’s clinic.
She told our team how much the donors’ help is appreciated: “With your help, we’ve been able to provide more help for more people. There is still a lot more that we need, and we ask you to continue to help.”
You’re one of the 46% of Americans who have heard of the crisis in East Africa, and one of a smaller number who care to help.
Find someone who hasn’t heard and tell them about it.
Find someone who cares and invite them to put their caring to action.
Explain how their donation can send food, water and health care that will send energy back through a father’s limbs, a spark back into a child’s eyes, hope back to a mother’s heart.
Let’s redouble our efforts. Please spread the word today.
Let us know what you’re doing for the people of East Africa on Nov. 9.
Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook, or send us an email at info@irusa.org. And remember to participate in the FWD campaign by using the hashmark #FWD in your tweets, and sharing information on your Facebook pages.
