Crisis in East Africa - What Jew Can Do about it

Ok, maybe the title of this post is a little too cutesy for this subject. Still, it's what this post is about. And what you CAN do about this is donate time or money to a local charity or nonprofit that's sending aid to the Africans who need this help so badly.

In Toronto, Ve'ahavta, Canada's preeminent Jewish humanitarian organization, is mobilizing to help out our East African brothers and sisters with their newly launched East Africa Famine Relief Fund. Here's their latest communiqué:

As crisis respondents of the Canadian Jewish community, Ve'ahavta has closely monitored and evaluated the situation on the ground in the Horn of Africa during this devastating period of the East Africa Famine.

Ve'ahavta, as members of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, has developed an appropriate and effective response which has been guided by a thorough needs assessment. Funds raised will be directed to provide aid and relief for local communities, which are falling under acute levels of malnutrition and death coupled with a climate of drought, conflict, and political and environmental insecurity.

East Africa is currently suffering from the worst drought in 60 years. An estimated 12 million people have been impacted, many displaced from their homes in urgent need of food, clean water, safe shelter, security, and disease prevention. The severity of the situation has recently increased whereby, in Somalia, famine has spread from 2 regions to 5 regions and continues to spread into neighbouring nations, and is expected to continue to do so over the next several weeks.

And if you're Canadian, you should know that the Government of Canada will match dollar for dollar every Canadian donation made to eligible registered Canadian charities for East Africa Famine Relief until September 16, 2011. So get on it people!