Plan provides emergency relief to displaced Kenyans

Hundreds of thousands of Kenya’s poorest children are at risk of severe malnutrition because of disruption to food supplies caused by recent political violence.

REUTERS/Georgina Cranston courtesy www.alertnet.org

Many children in the worst affected areas face acute food shortages and the absence of a political settlement means the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Plan is providing emergency aid to 50,000 children and 5,600 pregnant and lactating mothers. This aid includes high energy and high protein foods, equipment for family and group feeding and assessment of the nutritional needs of vulnerable communities.

Displaced and starving

The United Nations says that over 250,000 people have been uprooted by the unrest and about 100,000 displaced people in the Northern Rift Valley could face starvation. Several thousand more have fled across the border to Uganda.

Plan is helping children caught up in the violence by establishing emergency health centres and providing medicines and trained staff to treat victims.

Reconciliation projects

Longer-term support will aim to reunite families, protect vulnerable children from violence and engage children in reconciliation projects designed to repair communities shattered along tribal lines. Reconciliation projects are particularly important for older children and young people who have become personally involved in the conflict.

Information for sponsors

Plan is working in several areas affected by the political unrest but to date we have not received any reports that sponsored children have been directly affected.