Plan provides emergency relief to displaced Kenyans

Women displaced by the violence carry their belongings towards Eldoret, Kenya PHOTO: Reuters/Georgina Cranston, courtesy www.alertnet.org

8 January 2008: 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.

Many moderately malnourished children living in the worst affected areas are facing acute food shortages, the destruction of farms and the loss of family livelihoods. Fuel shortages and the current absence of a political settlement mean the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

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Plan is already providing emergency aid to displaced Kenyans and is expected to sign an agreement with the Kenyan Red Cross this week to provide relief to 50,000 children and 5,600 pregnant and lactating mothers.

This will include high energy and high protein foods, equipment for family and group feeding and assessment of the nutritional needs of vulnerable communities.

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Violent aftermath

The violence erupted after the disputed results of the presidential election held on 27 December.

Police report that more than 600 people have been killed during the violence, including up to 50 children who died when a church in Eldoret in which they were sheltering was set ablaze.

Displaced and starving

The United Nations warns that the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people and that about 100,000 displaced people in the Northern Rift Valley could face starvation. A few thousand Kenyans have fled across the border into Uganda.

Plan will offer support to children caught-up in the violence to recover their physical and mental health. This will include establishing emergency health centres and providing medicines and trained staff to treat victims.

Reconciliation projects

Longer-term support will include projects to reunite families separated during the unrest, 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.

Support Plan’s long-term work: sponsor a child