A young boy is examined at the SOS Clinic at the Badbado Refugee Camp in Somalia

September 20, 2011: SOS Children’s Villages provides loving homes and hope to 80,000 children in 133 countries who would otherwise have neither. At times of crisis, such as the current drought and famine in Somalia, SOS expands its operations by helping families and children living near its Children’s Villages.

Despite enormous challenges, including ongoing security threats, 250 SOS staff members in Somalia are working around the clock to save thousands of lives -- among them some of Somalia’s 190,000 children who have suffered severe acute malnutrition.

SOS medical staff are racing against time to treat children who are literally starving as well as those with measles, acute watery diarrhea, and other diseases. They are working at the SOS Emergency Health Center in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, while at the same time preparing for the imminent opening of outpatient feeding programs at the Badbado Camp for refugees (near Mogadishu), at Baidoa, in central Somalia, and at the long established SOS Hospital in the capital.

In one month alone, SOS medical staff administered lifesaving treatment to some 6,000 patients in Badbado. Over 120 miles away, in Baidoa, SOS admitted more than 1,000 patients in a four-day period to its newly opened facility. As in the capital, a third of those treated were children under five years old.  

Women wait for medical check-ups in front of an SOS Clinic in Mogadishu, Somalia

SOS Medical Experts Concerned About Imminent Disease Outbreaks

The camps that have been set up to help the hundreds of thousands of Somalis displaced by drought have been overwhelmed. SOS medical experts are worried about the growing numbers of people arriving at the 188 settlements in Mogadishu. With the advent of the rainy season, they foresee potential for cholera and malaria outbreaks, as cramped, unhygienic conditions are very likely to exacerbate an already dire situation.

In an effort to contain the problem, SOS staff are working with camp managers to educate refugee families about the need to improve sanitation. Many of the camps each hold more than 8,000 displaced men, women, and children.

Helmut Kutin, President of SOS Children’s Villages International, has stressed the need for additional funding. “SOS funds for additional emergency relief programs in the affected countries are limited, especially since rising food prices have pushed up the running costs of all our programs up by more than 20 percent,” he said. “We need additional funding because we will have to take in more children.”

Somalia’s Extraordinary Level of Need

On the ground, SOS has earned the trust and solid local relationships needed to be able to provide effective emergency relief to Somalia’s children, but right now the scale of that need is so great.

You can help provide much needed relief to families in Somalia and regions all over the world by making a donation today.