at they supply emergency cooking fuel and fuel-efficient stoves, saving women the dangerous trip into the unprotected bush.
Moreover, due to strict restrictions by the Kenyan government, abortion is not safely and legally available to women in the camp. Humanitarian groups are working to provide other health-care services to women victims of sexual violence, such as rape kits, emergency contraceptives and psychological care.
But, Tooze explains, in times of severe crisis, “some needs are going to fall through the cracks,” and such services for women are likely to feel the brunt of funding cuts. The UN recently announced it has only received around half of the $2.5 billion it needs to meet the current demand. According to Challiss McDonough of the World Food Programme, there have been no shortages of food aid yet, but supplies will run out without an increase in funding.
Refugee camps are particularly underfunded–camps in Kenya have received only 48 percent of what they need to operate, and the few functioning camps in Ethiopia have raised less than 10 percent of the 22 million they’re seeking. The Guardian reported that private donations have been far lower for the famine than for previous disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti or the flooding in Pakistan.
For now, the U.S. is giving needed aid. But what happens as the GOP push to balance the U.S. budget drags on? Amid the never-ending debt ceiling and budget debates, foreign aid can seem like an easy cut. Now more than ever, many are claiming the U.S. government can’t afford to support humanitarian concerns abroad as they struggle to create jobs at home (although the U.S. managed to give $1 billion in aid to a drought in the Horn of Africa during the 2008 financial crisis). President Obama’s “Feed the Future” program, which provides agricultural aid to Africa to prevent future famine, may lose a third of its funding thanks to a House Appropriations committee decision. The House also recently passed a 27 percent cut in USAID funding and a 12 percent reduction in international disaster response funding, which could compromise the president’s ability to approve future aid. But who bears the true cost of such cutbacks?
As one woman refugee told Pender:
You go out into the forest and there are men with guns. They don’t care if you’re old, they don’t care if you are sick, they don’t care if you are pregnant. They rape you without consideration.
While it may seem the U.S. can’t afford to continue to send aid, the women of Eastern Africa can afford even less to be left unprotected.
To urge the Obama administration to continue to send aid for the famine victims, you can sign this Care2 petition:
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Photo by International Rescue Committee / Peter Biro. Somali refugee women are in dire need of protection as rapes increase at refugee camps in Kenya.