The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is committing a total of 50,000 US Dollars for famine and drought relief in South Sudan and Kenya – $25,000 for each country.
The funds will be made available through ACT Alliance, a coalition of church-based aid agencies.
The PWRDF also released an appeal for donations for famine relief in South Sudan.
The appeal notes there are “alarming and growing signs of hunger” in South Sudan. The United Nations and South Sudanese government declared a state of famine in the north-central part of the African country last week.
“More than 40% of the population – 4.9 million people – are unsure where their next meal will come from,” PWRDF said. “These already-shocking numbers may increase to 5.5 million if nothing is done to improve access to food.”
Meanwhile, in Kenya, President H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta declared an ongoing drought a national disaster. According to PWRDF, nearly half of Kenya’s 47 counties are in a state of emergency, with rural areas struggling with livestock death and forecast reduction in the harvest.
The causes of the famine, according to PWRDF, include conflict, abnormal rainfall and economic collapse. South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 after the end of a civil war that lasted more than 20 years. But fresh conflict has been raging within South Sudan since 2013. PWRDF began working to help South Sudanese fleeing violence in 2016, partnering with SUDRA. PWRDF also made a grant to the ACT Alliance for supplies to refugee camps in Uganda.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has urged Anglicans to join him in praying for the South Sudanese. “We stand prayerfully alongside the South Sudanese people and their leaders – particularly those in the Church who are providing emotional, physical and spiritual support,” said Archbishop Justin Welby in a post on his Facebook page. “We pray for those on the ground who are delivering humanitarian assistance, that there will be an opening up of humanitarian corridors for the aid that is so desperately needed.”
For details of how to give a donation see the PWRDF website