An Overview of CBF Famine Response in East Africa
August 21, 2011

East Africa is experiencing its worst famine in the last 60 years and a “state of emergency” was declared by the United Nations (UN). According to the UN, approximately 12 million people are in need of assistance in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

In Somalia, approximately four million people are experiencing catastrophic conditions and many are migrating as refugees into Ethiopia and Kenya. However, political and security issues prevent direct interventions for those staying within Somalia.

In Kenya, nearly three million people are experiencing an emergency situation with refugee camps holding approximately 500,000 people. Approximately, five million Ethiopians are suffering with another 250,000 refugees in the camps in Dollo Ado.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has a presence through field personnel and reliable partners in both countries, so our activity will focus in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

While there are significant and immediate needs in the refugee camps, the majority of the efforts there will be the responsibility of the UN and large organizations equipped for such work.

However, CBF will support strategic but limited medical/feeding work that will focus on at-risk women and children in the Ethiopian camps in Dolo Ado through Conscience International (CI) and on ambulatory feeding centers through the Sisters Maternity Home (SIMAHO) in Garissa, Kenya.

In Kenya, the pathway will be through Africa Exchange and in Ethiopia through Water is Life International. Both of these organizations are rooted in CBF life and managed by CBF field personnel, Sam Harrell and David Harding, respectively. The primary activity in Ethiopia will be water resource development. The funds received by these partner organizations from CBF will be a 100 percent pass-through to each country project. Of course, designated giving will be honored for any of the initiatives.

There will be two parts to CBF’s response. Phase I will be a one-year effort directed toward immediate relief and rehabilitation that lays groundwork for long-term transformational development.

Depending on available resources, Phase II will be a multi-year effort directed toward transformational development.

CBF intends to shift from the relief and rehabilitation phases to the development phase as soon as possible. The relief phase is characterized by doing for the famine victims what they cannot do for themselves during the famine conditions. The transition to development is to work with Africans in partnership to create a better future with hope and opportunity for years to come.

The CBF Plan is a multi-year commitment to enable and empower victims of the famine to emerge hopeful and grateful for new opportunities that did not exist for them before this tragedy.

We are moved to act because God first loved us. Therefore, this effort is seen as the fruit of God at work in us to bring good things out of suffering and scarcity. It is not a frantic or anxious one-dimensional effort to repair and restore things as we see fit.

The prayerful lives of the practitioners and partners, whatever their role, will help shape the direction and outcomes. Several concepts will help guide the approach.

1. Definition of Poverty. Poverty is not just a deficit of knowledge, power or material resources. It is the complex of ruptured relationships with God, self, others and the environment. Emphasis will be given to reconciliation in these relationships rather than increasing material wealth. Handouts will be avoided. Development is about what someone can do with what they have through a learning process and is not measured by how much they have. Related to this is the need to identify and address root causes of poverty within the context of specific communities rather than treating symptoms.

2. Cultural Sensitivity. We will rely on the experience and translation of reality by trusted African partners and CBF field personnel. CBF field personnel that will be involved include Sam and Melody Harrell (Kenya), Jade and Shelah Acker (Uganda), Tim and Lori Myrick (Kenya) and David and Merrie Harding (Ethiopia). We want to avoid cookie-cutter approaches and Western bias.

3. Leadership. We will enable and empower local leadership and capacity that leads toward sustainable development.

4. Resource Leveraging. The CBF response will be catalytic to draw additional resources with various partners that will build a web of transformational activity that cannot be done by CBF alone.

While CBF is not a disaster response agency, we are well-positioned to build on existing partnerships built over years of collaboration to make a significant difference in the lives of East Africans suffering from the current famine. Pathways for immediate response in medicine, feeding, and water are available, if the funding is available.