Four of UNICEF's international Goodwill Ambassadors have recorded special PSAs calling on fans to support the charity in its efforts to relieve the devastating famine in the Horn of Africa.
Serena Williams, Angélique Kidjo, Yuna Kim and Ishmael Beah have recorded video messages seeking help for the millions of people facing starvation in East Africa.
The epicentre of the drought has hit the poorest people in the region in an area straddling the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where families rely heavily on livestock for survival. In some parts of the region, up to 60 percent of their herds have already died while the remainder are either sick or dangerously underweight. The price of animals has plummeted by half while the cost of cereals has soared. In Somalia the price of a main staple sorghum has risen by a massive 240 percent since this time last year.
Malnutrition rates in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are alarming and well above emergency levels – in some places five times higher than crisis threshold. In Dolo Ado, a camp in southern Ethiopia for Somali refugees, malnutrition rates are the highest recorded in this region since the nineties.
“The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors have been extremely supportive by sending this passionate plea to their fans to provide urgent support to some 13 million people in need of food in the drought inflicted Horn of Africa through PSAs and their social media platforms,” said Chief of UNICEF Celebrity Relations and Partnerships, Marissa Buckanoff.
You can watch Serena’s video here.
