Africa

Thanks to the incredible generosity of everyone have donated to the East Africa Crisis Appeal, ActionAid has supported over 128,600 people so far across Kenya, Somaliland and Ethiopia. In Kenya, ActionAid has supported over 98,000 people. Our local staff are there on the ground now distributing food, including rice, oil and beans, constructing water tanks and rehabilitating boreholes so that communities can get access to water. Find out how your donations are making a huge difference in Kenya right now. Read more

If you've been watching the news recently, you'll have seen the catastrophic effects that drought is having on lives and livelihoods in East Africa at the moment. The rains have failed, and as a result crops and livestock have been wiped out - leaving the people who depend on them on the brink of famine. The link between drought and hunger is horribly clear. But drought also increases the risk of another kind of danger, which is often more hidden and less talked about: the risk of violence against women and girls (VAWG). This World Water Day, find out why drought is making women and girls in East Africa more vulnerable to violence. Read more

The last time Somalia experienced famine, in 2011, a quarter of a million people died. As the risk of famine looms again, Sadia Abdi Alin, the Country Director of ActionAid Somaliland, the region of Somalia where ActionAid works, blogs about the devastating impact that hunger is having on communities, and how people in the UK can help before it is too late.  Read more

“Right now, hunger is wrenching apart whole communities and it is women and girls who are in the most danger.” This is the stark assessment of Sadia Abdi, ActionAid’s Country Director in Somaliland. Somalia, where ActionAid works in the region of Somaliland, is at significant risk of famine, with 6.2 million people in urgent need of humanitarian aid. These photos show the impact that the East Africa crisis is already having on women and girls, and why we must act now to save lives.  Read more

Hamda is the deputy leader of a women's coalition in Somaliland. She is a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM), and she works tirelessly to persuade people within her local community to stop carrying out FGM on their daughters, by sharing her experiences and how it could have destroyed her marriage.  Read more

Emily, 42, is a local ActionAid worker who lives in West Pokot, Kenya. Committed to changing the lives of women and girls in the region, she works with a network of more than 100 women from surrounding villages to help stamp out female genital mutilation (FGM). Since ActionAid started working there, Emily says fewer girls are facing the cut and many more are staying in school. But, as she explains here, there is still much to do to end the practice for good. Read more