It’s Friday! Yahoo! This week has stretched on for what seems like forever. It has been hotter than Hades outside. For the past few days it has been literally too hot to go in the pool, and if you stay outside for more than 2 minutes, you turn a nice shade of red. Today the heat index was a scorching 112, but luckily it’s supposed to cool off tonight, and only be 111 tomorrow! Ha. But really, all sarcasm aside, I have been wanting to do a new feature every Friday on my blog called “Follow Friday”. Each Friday I will pick a charity, cause, or organization to write about in hopes of informing people and getting the word out there! So to go with this weeks theme of ‘ridiculously hot’, I thought I would do my Follow Friday on The World Food Programme.
Currently in Somalia is in a severe state of famine. They are actually seeing the worst drought and famine they have had in 40 years! According to UNICEF, this drought is “the most severe humanitarian emergency in the world”. As the search for food and water continues, people are walking up to 30 days just to find relief. Those who are lucky/strong enough to survive the journey, end up making it to refugee camps only to find that they are also out of food and water. A camp in north Kenya that usually houses 90,000 people is now attempting to serve about 382,000 malnourished individuals. With little to no resources and a rapidly decreasing amount of hope, about 1 in 5,000 people are dying of starvation and malnutrition each day. Because of this alarmingly high number, agencies such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, and The World Food Programme are running out of supplies quickly. It is estimated that around $300 million is needed to help this horrible famine within the next two months to prevent it from spreading to other countries.
Now, I know that I was complaining earlier about how horribly hot it has been here. But at least I have food and water and air conditioning. These people aren’t asking for bathing suits, candy bars, or other frivolous things. They are asking for the necessities of life. They NEED food, water, and hope. And they need it quickly. YOU can help in the following ways:
-In the USA: Donate $10 to efforts in the Horn of Africa by texting the word AID to this number: 27722
-In Canada: Donate $5 to efforts in the Horn of Africa by texting the word RELIEF to this number: 45678
-In the UK: Donate £3 to efforts in the Horn of Africa by texting the word AID to this number: 70303
For more information of how you can help you can check out this website. Please. Even if you cannot give a lot, considering giving what you can. Every little bit helps.
*Also, I have had a lot of people asking me if they can buy one of my sketches. If anyone is interested having a sketch and would like to donate to this cause, that would be absolutely amazing! Feel free to leave me a comment in the comment section with an e-mail address or other contact information.
"Nobody can do everything. But everybody can do something."
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