Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
IN EXCESS OF $12500 NET RAISED IN THE EAST AFRICA FAMINE APPEAL DINNER
As East Africa is in the grips of one of the worst food security crises in the world today. Across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti 12.4 million people, more than half the Australian population, are affected by the devastating crisis, including over 2 million children.
Where in Southern Somalia a famine has been declared and 600,000 children are on the brink of death, suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The crisis is caused by the convergent effects of the worst droughts, soaring food prices and the ongoing armed conflict within the country.
Two emergencies are developing – one in over crowed camps for Somali refugees and another in the drought affected villages where lack of water, failed crops and dying livestock has resulted in a lack in food.
As a response on Monday the 5th of September, The Hon. Shaoquett Moselmane MLC together with friends raised in excess of $12,500 dollars through the inaugural East Africa Famine appeal fundraising dinner held at the Fontana Di Trevi in Bankstown Sydney.
"our humanity is overpowering, as many friends and members of the community attended in support of this humanitarian cause and donated whatever funds they could to help the children in need. The success of the function rests not only with the kind hearted support of those who attended and those who couldn’t but many who kindly donated money and gifts to raffle and to Auction. Special thanks must go to the helpers who dedicated so much of their time. I thank Louay Mustapha and Sam Asmar and of course I also thank the Lebanese Community Council for their great support.
The funds that you have helped raise will go directly to UNICEF EAST AFRICA FAMINE APPEAL." Shaoquett Moselmane said.
The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane MLC is currently in the process of planning the next venture with the aim of raising $100,000 for the St George Hospital, for further information and to lend your support please contact The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane on 9230 2526 or Louay Mustapha 02 9790 7555 / 0404 313 414.
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A Speech of the The Hon.Shaoquett Moselmane MLC
Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
it certainly is an honour for me to be with you here this evening engaged in this most humane cause, raising funds to help those in need. Thinking of and feeling with your fellow human being where ever and whoever they are is the noblest of human traits.
There is nothing more higher, morally, ethically and spiritually, than to reach out and to help those in need. Our humanity dictates it, our inner conscience urges it.
No human being can ignore the tragedy and the human suffering brought about by hunger, malnutrition and death and this is more so when those suffering are children and the frail.
An estimated 11.6 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
The situation is dire and all people around the world must act quickly and help.
A massive drought has hit these poor states, with this draught came failed harvests, rising food prices and conflict. Forcing people to move in their hundreds of thousands in search of food, water and shelter, and they are fleeing to refugee camps in their thousands.
The people of East Africa, need your help.
There is no excuse for inaction and there is no time to waste.
Aid agencies and governments were for some time aware that food would run out, and animals will die and crops will fail. Yet, they only began the call for help, when the children began to die. Many have died and many more will die if you and people around the globe do not step in and help.
Governments drag their feet and whatever action they take comes too little too late for hundreds and thousands if not millions.
As Fran Equiza, an Oxfam's regional director, notes that "there is no time to waste if we are to avoid massive loss of life. We must not stand by and watch this tragedy unfold before our eyes. The world has been slow to recognise the severity of this crisis, but there is no longer any excuse for inaction."
In some regions of Somalia, more than half the children there are suffering from acute malnutrition and the death rates are climbing. Around 3.7 million people – almost half of the Somali population, are now facing severe food shortages.
Somalia today is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years.
This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives.
Other countries in the region, in particular Ethiopia and Kenya, are also facing a crisis because of the failures of rains in pastoralist areas – the worst situation for 60 years in some places – as well as soaring food prices and longer term issues such as underdevelopment, internal civil strife and high population growth.
There are many harrowing stories of struggle as people walked for days on end to reach refugee camps but only to find the refugee camps short of food, short of doctors short on proper hygiene and short on basic medical care.
The story of Khadija Aliow Mohamed is typical of the many personal tragedies to hit Somalia.
Khadija, sits silently in the sand inside her tiny twig igloo, staring at the small bundle wrapped in a red and blue shawl on the bed. The 20-year-old Somali walked for 30 days with her two-year-old daughter Madina to get to this refugee camp in northern Kenya.
Hungry and exhausted, the family escaped the worst drought in southern Somalia in decades. But while Khadija regained her strength in Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee settlement, Madina, her two year old, did not. Just an hour after the UN declared a famine in two regions of Somalia, Madina died. Her mother, who is pregnant, is too shocked to talk.
The call for aid always comes too little too late for many like baby Madina.
Governments and international humanitarian and financial institutions must help now and they must develop plans to help poorer nations provide for the poor and adapt to the hotter, drier conditions they face and provide the necessities of survival. Such things as better pumps and boreholes, better vaccination of cattle, help with education, food storage and transport.
For now though, your urgent donation to and wonderful humanitarian support will go a long way in helping some child or some families in refugee camps desperate for help.
$1bn is required only $200 million has been pledged.
I would like once again to sincerely thank each and every one of you. Your kindness will be rewarded in the many lives that you will help save from the misery they currently face.
I would like to thank the many LCC organisations and the many other organisations and individuals and media representatives and all of the kind people who have not only donated but also donated raffle items or auction items and help us raise more needed funds.
I wish to thank Joe Awada and Fadwa Kebbe but in particular Louay Mustapha and Sam Asmar for their diligent work and commitment in helping make this fund raiser a success.
I thank you and hope you enjoy the rest of the evening and encourage you to dig deep when buying raffle or bidding for an auction item.
