Japan Donates $3m for Somali Drought Victims

By Dipo Olowookere

The government of Japan has donated about $3 million to support UNICEF’s continuing emergency response to the prolonged drought in Somalia.

The funding support, an Emergency Grant Aid, will assist the UN body’s ongoing lifesaving work for women and children hit by the devastating drought in Somalia and will also fund essential health, sanitation and hygiene and nutrition services for some of the worst affected communities.

 No fewer than 175,000 people will benefit from the kind gesture for more than six months in Somalia and will allow UNICEF to sustain and upscale its emergency sanitation and hygiene work in settlements for some of the hundreds of thousands displaced by drought this year and those affected by the outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea/cholera.

This will include constructing toilets, distributing emergency hygiene kits including water purification tablets, soap and buckets, chlorinating water being sold privately and repairing water sources.

It is estimated that 232,000 children have or will suffer life threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next year; this funding will allow UNICEF to procure and preposition lifesaving therapeutic food, as well as conduct screening for early detection of malnutrition.

The outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea/cholera in Somalia this year affected more than 75,000 people and while the number of new cases has been declining rapidly, there are fears of a resurgence during the rains. The funding will be used to procure health kits and essential medicines, support cholera facilities and train emergency teams to help control the outbreak.

“The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is far from over and children remain at serious risk,” said UNICEF Somalia Representative Steven Lauwerier. “The generous funding from the Japanese Government is crucial to ensure we can maintain our response to the ongoing drought by saving lives, treating the sick and malnourished and also preventing the spread of disease through providing clean water and sanitation.”