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Germany’s Relief Coalition (Aktion Deutschland HilftP) calls for donations for West Africa

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Relief Organisations try to hinder the worst

Bonn, 22.2.2012. Almost eleven million people in West Africa areconfronted with acute hunger following drought, no harvest and the increase of food prices. “This is a major catastrophe, relief organisations as we are have the responsibility to take action rapidly and undertake prevention to save thousands of people from starvation. We need even more people who will listen,” is the appeal from Manuela Roßbach, manager of Aktion Deutschland Hilft. “The people, such as those in Niger or Chad, have barely been able to recover from the severe famine of 2010. Without famine, in one year 300,000 children die in the Sahel due to poor nutrition and a lack of health aid – 400,000 are already suffering from severe malnutrition now. Through Donations we are attempting to prevent the situation from becoming even worse.”

Our federation partners ADRA, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, CARE, Help, Islamic Relief and World Vision are working in Emergency Aid in Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Mauretania and Burkina Faso. In Niger, for example, they distribute food, especially food supplements, to children under five years. The relief workers have established grain banks there and in Chad, distribute seeds in Burkina Faso for the next phase of planting and give medical aid to children suffering from malnutrition.

“Our help also continues to be urgently needed in East Africa. But emergency relief and disaster prevention are only one side of the coin in the Sahel countries,” relates Manuela Roßbach. We need comprehensive relief campaigns, which are conceived by the people and their governments together with the relief organisations. In this way the capability of the people can be strengthened in the long-term to survive better any further crises.” Aktion Deutschland Hilft, the federation of relief organisations, urgently requests donations for the people threatened by starvation in West Africa!

Aktion Deutschland Hilft Key word: West Africa/Sahel Donation account: 10 20 30, Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, Bank code: 370 205 00 Donation hotline: 0049 900 55 102030 free of charge on the German landline, Mobile phone charges can differ. online: www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de