A Famine

As you know, I am the last debbie-downer about anything related to Africa, especially on a Monday morning. Yet, I was recently flipping through pictures of the current crisis in East Africa when I came across this amazing shot by one of my favorite photojournalists, Jehad Nga and just had to share. While sharing the image is important, more important is the fact like in Haiti and Japan, a natural disaster - drought - is effecting millions of lives throughout parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and especially Somalia*. While this story may feel buried in the pile of other major ongoing events (i.e. loony-tunes in Norway, psycho madness in DC with the US national debt, etc), there is at least something small that can be done with this crisis....

• You can donate to several organizations already on the ground trying to reach as many refugees as they can but still far short of the resources needed.
• You can blog, twitter, facebook, tumblr, google+ or ______(fill in your favorite other social media medium) about this situation and remind others that despite the lack of t-shirts, fundraising concerts, or even decent media coverage, this famine is indeed happening and deserves as much recognition as those that have suffered recent natural disaster elsewhere in the world.
  

{Photo: Jehad Nga for Time Magazine}

*Note: While drought is the main factor, the political situation in Somalia makes this an incredibly complex crisis.