APPEAL JULY 2005 – THE LIVE 8 CONCERT

July 2: The Live 8 concerts put Africa in the Global Spotlight
July 8: G8 Leaders announce new measure to help Africa
July 20: The UN appeals again for money to save 3.6 million people starving.

David Harding on the July 21, 2005 Metro wrote:

Have we forgotten so quickly?
HUNDREDS of thousands of African children are starving to death because appeals for AID were ignored, the United Nations warned on the 20th of July.
Just weeks after Live 8 rallied the world to make poverty history and G8 leaders agreed to double pledges to Africa by 2010, up to 3.6 million people. [...]
Aid Agencies predicted a humanitarian disaster in October [2004] but say the International Community failed to respond quickly enough.
The UN first appealed for help in November [2004] but got almost NO response. [...]

FORGOTTEN 18m FACING STARVATION

MORE than 18 million people face starvation in ten African countries, experts warned on the 20th of July 2005.

As the UN focuses world attention on the dire problems in Niger, poor rains and high crop prices have left the HORN OF AFRICA region with severe food shortages. There is also the added fear that locusts could ravage crops in the region.

Tribes are fighting with each other over diminishing water and pastures, while desperate families are being forced to travel long distance in search of food. Many of the most vulnerable, including children and the elderly, are being abandoned, the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network said. Very poor pasture conditions and insufficient water have forced people to migrate with their animals from home-steads and markets, it added in a report. This has disrupted the normal sources of food for children, women and the elderly, as they are typically left behind.

The worse affected country is Ethiopia, where more than HALF of the 18 million population are facing starvation, the report warned. In neighbouring Eritrea 2.2 million of the country’s 4.5 million people are in the same position. In Somalia 1 milion and in Djibouti 100,000. [...] North-Eastern Kenya and Eastern Ethiopia are the areas where Children are suffering the most severe malnutrition. [...]

Caroline Waterman, of Christian Aid, said the problems were acute but not as bad as in oter parts of Africa. [...] She insisted more development rather than aid was need in the vast region so that people there could produce more of their own food.

Source: Metro - July 21, 2005

Our appeal focuses just on that kind of AID. Please help us. We are all expatriates from the Horn of Africa countries and we know how to assist them better. We do need your support for our hard work.

Please visit on our website (PROJECTS | Eye Clinics for Children & Small Scale Farming) for more information.

We do care for this people and we are doing whatever is possible.

Last year with the kind assistance of "The Order of the Orthodox Hospitallers", we managed to ship to Addis Ababa a container with medical equipment etc. worth about £500,000. This year we are struggling to pay our running expenses. We are ALL volunteers and Part-timers, we do not have salaries, cars or any other benefit. All we have is:

1. A rented office
2. A rented warehouse
3. Telephone & mail expenses
4. Accountants as required by the law

In spite of the poor donations we received this year, we do not give up. We always hope and try to build a better future, for the desperate people in Africa.

The other day, a pensioner who has a standing order of £10.00 per month, on her own initiative, phoned us to send her another Standing Order Form because from the account we were paid, we could not claim the contribution from the UK Government. She transferred the Standing Order from her private account to her joint account with her husband. What could one say to such kind people? We believe "Thank you" is not enough. It is just another word, like "you are very kind", "sorry", "excuse me", "welcome", etc. All we can say to all these kind people is that we will work, even under the light of candles, in order to secure whatever help is possible for the People of Africa.

Thanking you for your support
CHILDREN OF ETHIOPIA AID