Scottish Catholic Observer

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) is urging Scots to give generously to millions of people across Africa who are facing the worst drought in 30 years and the hunger that will bring.

Increasingly severe and erratic weather worsened by climate change have led to the most severe water shortages since the 1980s in many countries leaving millions of men, women and children desperately hungry and malnourished across east and southern Africa. The Scottish charity has launched an emergency appeal to help them.

In Ethiopia, more than 10 million people are now in need of emergency food aid. States of emergency have been declared in Malawi and Zimbabwe. In South Sudan, a country ravaged by war, two-thirds of the population, 7.5 million people, don’t have enough food to feed themselves, with evidence of starvation in some areas.

“The extreme drought, combined with deadly floods and erratic rainfall in some areas, have destroyed crops, killed cattle and left millions of families hungry, malnourished and in urgent need of our help,” SCIAF Director Alistair Dutton said.

“We need to do whatever we can to help them. These are very difficult times for millions of people across east and southern Africa. We need money urgently so that we can continue to provide food, money and seeds to many thousands of the most vulnerable people caught up in the current food crisis. I would ask everyone who is able, to please give whatever they can to help people get through this terrible crisis.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that, in light of the food crisis in Africa, ‘it is vital that we scale up our humanitarian response urgently.’

“To do that, we need the full support and attention of the international community,” he added.

Working as part of the global Caritas family of Catholic international aid agencies, SCIAF is already providing food, seeds and other essentials for thousands of desperate families. However, the charity has also written to its supporters, asking them to support the emergency appeal to help them to do more.

Already in Malawi SCIAF is helping to feed 40,000 vulnerable people including children, pregnant women and the elderly; in Ethiopia SCIAF is working with CAFOD and Trocaire to help support 674,000 of the poorest people in one of the world’s poorest countries; and in South Sudan, where the food crisis has been made worse by a civil war, SCIAF is working with other Catholic charities to help 173,000 families with food, cash, seeds and training so they can grow food and support themselves in the long term.

—Visit http://www.sciaf.org.uk/

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