Wednesday, August 03, 2011
The United Nations says millions could be affected. And Atlanta-area Somali immigrants are trying to help organize aid for their country.
Thousands of Somali refugees have settled in the Clarkston area and built an entire community there. Most of them still have family back in Somalia who are trapped in the midst of famine and war.
"I told them we need children and women cloths this is how they respond," said Aden Hussein, a Somali immigrant.
The goal is to send a shipping container with 40,000 pounds of clothes from Atlanta. Because Aden Hussein says Somalis enter the refugee camps with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
"They don't have nothing they just like this. UN and other agencies they send food and water and shelter but they don't have clothes," said Hussein.
Clarkston is home to thousands of Somali immigrants. Most shop, eat and socialize in a shopping plaza together. And together they are looking for a way to fight the famine back home. The UN says hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of starvation because of drought and because al-Qaida linked extremists are making it nearly impossible to deliver aid.
"We're talking about neighbors people we went to school with people are suffering," said Omar Shekey.
Omar Shekey heads the Somali American Community Center. His own brother lost a son to starvation earlier in the 20 year civil war, while fleeing his career as veterinarian for a refugee camp.
"His house been looted. His pharmacy has been destroyed. He run away with his children," said Shekay.
Mohamed Ali Nur is a pediatrician and the former Somali Minister of Health. He too fled the war and he's treated starving children himself.
"This is an emergency to save these people from dying," said Mohamed Ali Nur.
So the community, most of whom fled the war and the violence, are collecting money and supplies for the friends and family still suffering.
The Somalia American community center is planning on shipping the clothes to a refugee camp in Kenya. They are also collecting money for famine relief.
For more information and to see how you can help, visit the following sites: http://www.somaliamericancommunitycenter.org/
Save the Children
American Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders