One Family Partners with Turkish Red Crescent

We are delighted to announce an important partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent to provide critical food and supplies in Somalia, through our forthcoming Ramadan campaign.

Drought has made food scarce and, along with ongoing conflict, has forced people to abandon their homes. Currently, 1.1 million Somalis are displaced, mostly in urban areas, and the grim living conditions they encounter mean that there is a real risk of disease spreading–there have already been outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera, and measles, all of which can kill the weak and infirm. Help came too late for Somalia in 2011. By the time a famine was declared, over a quarter of a million people had died. We must do everything we can to make sure that this does not happen again.

Currently, there are 6.7 million people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance—that is one in two Somalis. There are up to 1.4 million acutely malnourished children, with 275,000 of those lives already in jeopardy because their malnutrition has reached the point of being life-threatening. The reality is, that in parts of Somalia, there is already a famine.

Maher Zain, Ambassador of One Family, who was present at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the organisations said “We believe our partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent will have a significant impact, particularly on those suffering the effects war, drought and famine in Somalia” he said. “Somalia needs us. Not tomorrow, but today. They need food, water, medical supplies, and shelter for those who have been forced to abandon their homes because of drought and conflict.”

As a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian society, the Turkish Red Crescent seeks out to prevent and alleviate human suffering without discrimination in order to maintain and promote human dignity and peace in the world.

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