13 Reasons I'm Running for Glimmer of Hope

1. The Horn of Africa is suffering from their worst drought in 60 years.

2. From June-August, over 29,000 children under 5 died due to hunger and illness, and it is predicted that without aid thousands more will die.

3. 13 million people are at-risk due to a lack of food and water (which is about three million more people than live in the entire state of Michigan).

4. Children under 5 and women are most effected by the food crisis.

5. Mothers shouldn’t have to decide between helping their dying children and their healthy ones.

6. The UN estimates that 750,000 Somali people could die from hunger in the next four months.

7. Six regions of Somali have reached the famine stage (which the UN states to be at least 20 per cent of households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day).

8. Nearly 120,000 Somalis are living in the crowded refugee camps of Dolo Ado in Ethiopia (including children who have been separated from their families).

9. People living in refugee camps also are at-risk diseases like measles & cholera.

10. Families, often with malnourished children, are walking for days in search of assistance.

11. Food prices, as a result of failing crops, have increased dramatically making it hard for families to purchase the basic necessities.

12. The World Food Program estimated that 700,000 people in southern Ethiopia (which is where Turo is from) will need food assistance.

13. This is my son’s homeland. I'm forever connected to this place and her people.

If you would like to make a donation to help the people of Ethiopia and Somalia, you can visit my fundraising page at http://www.aglimmerofhope.org/campaign/131-ethiopia


Here are some links from which I collected the above information -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/world-food-program-chief-says-east-africa-famine-efforts-focusing-on-young-children/2011/09/23/gIQABAWhrK_story.html

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39450

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/somalia-famine-parents_n_924760.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/05/somalia-famine_n_949139.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/09/201195104317598222.html

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/aid-worker-diaries/dire-humanitarian-situation-for-somalis-fleeing-into-ethiopia