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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Aid group witness to horrors of hunger
FOR two days, Mike Weickert has been at a refugee camp in northeastern Somalia, offering whatever help he can to thousands of desperate and hungry men, women and children suffering through a severe drought and food crisis.
"Some of the stories are just horrific," the director of World Vision Canada's humanitarian and emergency affairs said in a telephone interview from Somalia. Despite the weakness brought on by a lack of nutrition and water, families have walked hundreds of kilometres and days on end to reach the camp, where they stand a better chance of getting even just a little bit of sustenance.
At the refugee camp in Puntland, near the Ethiopian border, children lie under makeshift shelters constructed with whatever material is handy -- sticks, cardboard, cloth or metal -- to defend themselves against the blistering sun and the billowing dust that betrays the region's worst drought in decades.
Some men and women, meanwhile, find their way to the neighbouring town, where they either work for wages or beg for food.
World Vision arrived in the region in November after being kicked out of the country's south-central area where the ongoing civil war adds to the layers of insecurity and suffering.
Many Somalis with homes where the fighting is at its worst have had to find their ways to new regions where they discover people are equally affected by the drought, but less so by the civil war.
Aid workers have been "evicted" or barred from entering certain areas, Weickert said. And they don't dare defy orders from the rebel forces.
"We can't risk our staff. And it wouldn't be effective in getting aid," he said. "It's a big barrier. If we were able to work in those areas, we would really be able to help people more."
In Puntland, Weickert and his colleagues have met some people who made their way from the south-central region. It took one family 30 days to get there as they walked, took rides and rested along the way.
"One woman, she left her husband and two sick children behind, then took the rest of her children," he said. "I haven't done the exact measure, but I think it's 800 kilometres. It's a considerable distance... But they come because they know they can find aid here and they can be safe."
The battle has been challenging for the aid groups on the ground, as well, Weickert said, citing insufficient funding as one of the problems.
"Given we knew earlier in the year that this was happening, the funding is slow," he said. "Getting funding was hard when (the famine) wasn't as apparent."
Canada has so far pledged $72 million to humanitarian relief in East Africa.
Another Canadian organization, GlobalMedic, is sending millions of water-purification tablets and sachets, while the Canadian Red Cross, Care Canada and other groups have donation campaigns underway.
In Puntland, Weickert and his colleagues are focusing their efforts on a program that assesses the health and needs of children at the camp. "Part of the treatment is a sort of peanut butter paste, which is very effective at helping children get back to health," he said. "I think it costs about 30 cents per tube. A child would take probably two of those a day."
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 31, 2011 A6
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