Somalian Crisis

We sometimes forget how lucky we are.  How much we have and how much we actually should be grateful for.  There are people in the world that have so much less, and we just don’t give back often enough.  The famine crisis that has been top of the news for the last couple of weeks is happening on our doorstep in Africa.  Somalia is not a destination that we specialize in, and logically with all the other challenges Southern, South and East Africa face, ones efforts should probably be focused on areas that have a direct impact on our business.

However, this humanitarian crisis has seeped into our hearts.  The more coverage out there, the more disturbing images that go around the world of starving children, the more you hear of the unbelievable stories of people actually making it to a feeding centre alive – the more we realized that we have to try and make a contribution.

So we are making a donation on every booking we receive for the months of August and September.  We are donating to the UNICEF Horn of Africa Fund.  The UN estimates that around 770,000 people have fled to refugee camps and about $1.3 billion is needed to address this crisis.

The Horn of Africa is notorious for long-term cycles of severe hunger.  But with decades of failed crops, climate changes, and economic crises – the current drought (the worst since 1951) has increased malnutrition, killed and weakened livestock, increased food prices and basically driven up famine and hunger.  Innocent people are suffering and we would really like to make a difference.  If you need to know more about what UNICEF is doing you can visit their site here.

Otherwise, know that we are also doing something to give back to our fragile continent.