Christian humanitarian organization World Vision has announced its full support for “FWD Campaign” that has been launched by USAID and the Ad Council to create public awareness for the Horn of Africa drought. This announcement has come at a time when fundraising campaign is lagging and famine conditions are spreading in the drought-hit areas.
World Vision had cautioned about the looming crisis in the African region in early 2011. It is presently working in the regions of Kenya, Ethiopia, northern Somalia, and Somalia-Ethiopia border regions to save lives of the poor people and to prevent famine from spreading further.
“USAID and the Ad Council’s FWD Campaign comes at a key time, as aid agencies like World Vision continue to struggle to raise the funds we need to save lives,” said World Vision president Richard Stearns. “Compared to disasters like the quakes in Haiti or Japan, the awareness among Americans just isn’t there.”
“Famine is not a word aid workers or the UN throw around lightly. It means hundreds, thousands are dying and are going to die if we don’t do something,” Stearns added. “This campaign will help get that urgent message out across America so that people can spread the word, donate, call their government officials, get involved. In an emergency, we need all hands on deck.”
The FWD Campaign is developing television, radio and Web ads featuring well-known actors and public figures, and will direct audiences to text “GIVE” to 777444 to donate $10 to a coalition of humanitarian organizations working in the Horn of Africa, including World Vision.
Meanwhile, World Vision has been warning the current budget debate in Congress could threaten disproportionate cuts that would cripple America’s ability to save lives in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere—namely cuts to the disaster response and refugee line items in the foreign aid budget, and to emergency food aid.
“With the FWD Campaign, the Administration is sending a bold message to Americans to help save lives in the Horn of Africa, even while Congress is debating cutting life-saving food and emergency foreign aid to some of the same women and children,” said Dr. Kent Hill, Senior Vice President of World Vision’s International Programs.
“We all remember the Ethiopia famine in the ’80s. Americans responded, and Ethiopia hasn’t seen famine conditions since. America—and each of us individually—needs to respond now, or Somali children will continue to die,” Hill added.
World Vision, together with its coalition partners American Refugee Committee, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, UNICEF USA, and World Food Program USA, further expressed support for the FWD Campaign with the following statement today:
The campaign will show Americans the gravity of the crisis in the Horn of Africa, one whose deadly combination of famine, war and drought grows worse by the day and is expected to continue on for many months to come. Some 13 million people are affected, making it the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. With numbers this large, widespread support is essential to respond to the immediate needs and plan for long-term relief.
As leading relief and development organizations with decades of experience working with families and communities in the Horn of Africa, there is eagerness to support this campaign, which will inspire more Americans to spread the word, call their government officials, and help stop more people from dying needlessly.
