Ethiopia Drought Appeal

In 2016, Ethiopia faced its worst drought in three decades, triggering widespread crop failures. More than 10 million people were left in urgent need of food and water, after the El Niño weather phenomenon caused severe dry spells in large parts of the country.

• Widespread crop failures meant farmers were unable to harvest anything for two consecutive planting seasons.
• With food stocks in low supply, hard-hit families struggled to find enough food to eat.
• More than 400,000 children suffered from severe malnutrition.
• Hundreds of thousands of livestock died.

• We released £50,000 of emergency funds to help some of communities worst affected by the drought.
• We fed 4,100 school children in Zuway Dugda, giving them nutritious meals for three months so that they wouldn’t go hungry and could continue attending classes.
• We made sure that 700 children had access to safe drinking water.
• We gave emergency supplies of seed and fertiliser to 300 of the most vulnerable families, to help them plant new crops.