Famine aid sought

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 12

Famine aid sought

An urgent appeal to help relieve the severe famine in Eastern and Central Africa has been launched by the New Zealand Save the Children Fund. The Fund in New Zealand has moved quickly last month to send $lO,OOO to assist famine victims.

Now, New Zealanders are asked to contribute further funds to help support several New Zealanders and many others from all over the Commonwealth already working in the area, says Mrs W. D. Foster, the New. Zealand Save the Children Fund President. “Donations can be sent to Box 727 Wellington or deposited with any branch of the National Bank of New Zealand,” she said. “Caused by severe drought and accelerated

by the movement of war refugees, the famine has affected Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, the Sudan and Uganda. “The situation is tragic. There are four million people, including mothers and children, starving to death in Uganda alone.” Mrs Foster says. Reporting from Karamoja, Uganda, Dr Basil King of ■ the Save the Children Fund says a good number of malnourished people can be saved from death if supplies of food can be brought in quickly.

“At the mission compound, at Moroto in Karamoja, I saw hundreds of grossly emaciated adults and children but scarcely a single normally nourished person apart from employees of the mission,” Dr King' says., “The mission was cooking and distributing maize porridge to dozens of'severely starved children after it had become apparent that food was being eaten by starving mothers rather than reaching the children.” he said.

“Even those that have money cannot find any food to buy,” according to Dr King, “and this has lead to the anomalous phenomenon of beggars dying of starvation with money in their pockets.”

“The Save the Children Fund in London has just undertaken to supply a further five nurses to set up supplementary feeding centres in Karamoja for between 15,000 and 20,000 starving children,” Mrs Foster says. It is estimated that this programme alone will cost over $167,000 over the next 12 months.