THE
HUMANITARIAN
COALITION

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Rashid Aran Omer camped at a water station in the Wajir region of northern Kenya a few weeks ago, sleeping on the parched ground beside his small herd of cattle.

He was waiting for a tanker truck to crest the horizon and siphon its water into a hole in the ground lined with a bright yellow tarp.

"This is our only source of water now," he told a visiting Oxfam representative.

"One family walked for four days to get here. We have not had any rains at all this year, and our cattle are getting weaker. Our animals are how we make our living. Without them, we do not have money to buy food or milk for our children."

Omer is one of 20 million people living in Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and parts of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda suffering from the devastating drought. Crops have withered and wilted. Animals are weakened. Water has dried up and disappeared. Malnutrition rates have spiked.

"Without our animals, there is no milk for our children and we can’t afford good food for them. Many are experiencing diarrhea and are getting sick. With so little water, they cannot even wash their hands before they eat," said Salada Alasow, a woman left caring for six children in northern Kenya while her husband took their livestock into Somalia in search of water.

This is the fifth year in a row the skies above the arid lands of the Horn and East Africa have stubbornly refused to bring enough rain. Climate change is no future possibility here. It is a catastrophe today, curtailing rainfall and stunting the growing season.

People are creative and resilient in their struggle to survive. They work incredibly hard to safeguard their families and protect their herds. But their ability to cope has been stretched beyond its limit.

Besides trucking in water, Oxfam is helping families prepare for the short rainy season, which we all hope will come in October. In Ethiopia, we hire local teams to refurbish water containers, drill wells and maintain traditional ponds. The cash they earn allows them to purchase food and other necessities.

This crisis shows why Oxfam is asking Canadians to pressure the government to tackle climate change. People like Salada and Rashid have not caused the problem, and neither is it nature’s whim.

Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas pollution, and East Africa produces barely any. Yet they are paying the price.

Canada, sadly, is the world’s second highest greenhouse gas polluter per capita. A line can be drawn from our environmental excesses directly to the suffering of East Africans.

We are now approaching the 25th anniversary of the 1984 famine that shocked the world and affected eight million people. Today communities are better placed to cope. Governments and agencies like Oxfam are better prepared to assist.

But five years of climate-change-induced drought has pushed us all to the brink. We must appeal to your sense of justice and generosity once again.

Oxfam has joined forces with CARE Canada and Save the Children to ensure your donations reach those who need them most. Please give to our Humanitarian Coalition’s joint appeal by visiting www.humanitariancoalition.ca. And join our campaign on women’s rights and climate change by visiting www.oxfam.ca.

’Climate change is no future possibility here. It is a catastrophe today, curtailing rainfall and stunting the growing season.’

Robert Fox is the executive director of Oxfam Canada.