Ethiopia's impending famine

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LET US PRAY TO SWAMY TO ALLEVIATE THE SUFFERING OF BROTHEREN - IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE THAT SUCH A FATE MAY BEFALL US ALSO IN FUTURE ----- Forwarded Message ----Deepak Punjabi <indigoblue2005Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:53:33 PMEthiopia's impending famine

 

 

Ethiopia's impending famine

 

 

 

 

Severe droughts, together with rising food prices, have left millions in Ethiopia in need of emergency food assistance.

 

 

 

Valerie

Browning is an Australian nurse who lives and works in the Afar region.

She and her husband Ishmael al-Garod founded an NGO, the Afar

Pastoralists Development Association, six years ago.

 

 

 

Ms

Browning has been treating two-year-old Dorro for malnutrition. The

family had no food and this has reduced her immunity, so now Dorro is

seriously ill.

 

 

 

Ms

Browning gives a child the Middle Upper Arm Circumference test. The

majority of children she visited over a three-day period were suffering

borderline malnourishment.

 

 

 

These

women left their village in search of food and water. Milk is used as a

substitute for food, but animals that have not already perished produce

only a fraction of what they would if healthy.

 

 

 

Many

animals continue to die for lack of water and grazing pasture. Their

value has fallen by a half even though food prices are rising.

 

 

 

Two-year-old

Halima Gaz has been severely brain-damaged following a fever when she

was 15 months old, as her family was unable to get her to a doctor.

 

 

 

Unda Awka had been slipping in and out of consciousness through lack of food prior to the arrival of aid.

 

 

 

Maryan

Ali and her malnourished children remain in a remote village close to

the border with Djibouti. Most families have left to go in search of

grazing pasture.

 

 

 

Dhabo

said: "I had to close the shop six months ago because food prices have

risen so much… People rely on their animals for money, but one goat is

now worth less than a pair of flip-flops."

 

 

 

All photographs by Nick Danziger/Oxfam (BBC)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deepak Punjabi Baguio City