ADRA - Adventist Development and Relief Agency Canada

Published purpose

(December 2011) Somalia continues to be home to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. An estimated 4 million people (perhaps 50% of the country's population) require humanitarian assistance as a result of the ongoing effects of the most severe drought in sixty years and of two decades of conflict and insecurity. One and a half million Somalis within the country have been forced from their homes and nearly one million more reside as refugees in neighbouring states. At the end of 2011, three areas of southern Somalia remain classified by the UN as famine zones, suffering from extremely high rates of acute malnutrition and child mortality. With CIDA support, ADRA is meeting the emergency humanitarian needs of an estimated 84,000 drought and conflict-affected people, including some 17,000 internally displaced persons, in Banadir and Hiran, two of the worst hit regions in south-central Somalia. ADRA's efforts are focused on three critical areas of intervention: water, sanitation, & hygiene; shelter & essential non-food Items (NFIs); and health. Some specific project activities include the rehabilitation of 21 water points, the distribution of NFI kits to displaced persons, and the provision of emergency medical kits to support local health centres.