This is the first installment of Scarlett's video journal from her trip to Dadaab, Turkana and Lodwar with Oxfam to shine light on the drought and food crisis that continues to unfold across East Africa. After this one, you can view the later installments here and here, and please visit Oxfam for more information and to help out.
Several months ago I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about a refugee camp that profoundly struck me. I was aware of the global food crisis, but the statistics this particular article stated were overwhelming. Dadaab, which I had never heard of before, is the largest refugee camp in the world. It was declared full occupancy in 2008, but has received between 600 and 1,500 Somali refugees daily since.
These are victims of political conflict, severe drought and famine, and the population in these camps has now reached roughly 400,000. I tried to wrap my head around what the conditions of that camp must be like, how its occupants were surviving everyday life in the barren, arid landscape with the barest of essentials. How did anyone manage to source food or clean water? And what must the conditions be like in regards to sanitation?
As an Ambassador of Oxfam since 2004, I knew that our organization must have a presence there. Sure enough, I learned that Oxfam has been working in Dadaab since 2009, providing water sanitation, building latrines, digging boreholes, laying pipe and constructing tap stands amongst other aid. We planned a trip for late September and decided to not only highlight the crisis amongst Somali refugees but another global crisis affecting the entire Horn of Africa, the worst drought the area has seen in over 60 years.
Pastoralists, farmers and fisherman have seen their means of survival virtually die off, while entire communities are left in a state of flux and starvation with no means of relief. These communities are dependent on Oxfam's relief for both emergency response and for long term sustainable solutions. The media's spotlight on both of these crises is inconsistent and insufficient. These issues need to be addressed on a global scale immediately, as roughly 13 million people are at risk and most of Southern Somalia has been declared in a state of famine.
I visited Dadaab, Turkana and Lodwar with Oxfam and wanted to write a journal with accompanying pictures for Huffpo. But after one day in the fields, I realized the scale of what we were witnessing was almost impossible to put into words and decided to do a video log over the three days time so that I might shed light on the crisis as well as Oxfam's vitally important work. If you are inspired as I am and are able or would like to contribute to the cause, please help me raise funds by going to oxfamamerica.org/scarlett.
Please remember that no amount is too small and Oxfam's low administrative cost means that the maximum amount goes directly to effecting positive change in virtually millions of people's lives.
Iman: Five Seeds of Hope for Somalia
Greg Spencer: Why I'm Walking 136 Miles With 50 Pounds of Wood on My Back
10 million at risk from East Africa drought - CNN
East Africa's drought batters Somali children - USATODAY.com
Record Drought Threatens Millions in Eastern Africa | The Rundown ...
East Africa drought reaches Kenya's electricity grid - CSMonitor.com
To read about their mission, see http://www.one.org/c/us/about/3782/
To read about the challenges and their solutions, see http://www.one.org/c/us/issue/3776/
The main website is one.org
Here is part of their mission:
ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers.
As for your belief that celebrities should do these things at home, our government does provide for people and there is no removal of rubble to be done so that people can move about. Medical care is available at any hospital. The hospitals in Haiti were destroyed. Your disregard for the plight of others is truly disheartening.
In fact, I have nothing against Ms. Johansson's Africa vacation, but, please, remember, she's only an actress used to read somebody's else texts (just like Obama).
To her detractors I would say this. We live in the real world. A world dominated by a media whose attention to such issues ranges from momentary to non-existent.
In the real world it is necessary on a regular basis to refocus the media on such issues as this refugee crisis. It has been the tradition for decades to utilize celebrities in this effort to refocus that attention.
Mock her if you will, but if you read the article or at least watched the video, you cannot deny that you now know more about the issue than you did. Which means that her trip was a success, it accomplished its purpose.
Ms. Johansson could have chosen not to make the journey and instead lay by a pool sipping cocktails and fanning herself. Instead she chose to make an effort, which by the way put her in harm's way.
What is the point of attacking her for doing something positive with her time?
What have YOU done to help address the issue?
No matter your skin color, your nationality or your political beliefs, these refugees are your fellow human beings, existing on the same fragile planet that you are. They are your brothers and your sisters, and they share the same ancestry that you do (oh, sorry, that's called science.)
Would you object so strongly if it was Lee Greenwood making the same effort?
I applaud Ms. Johansson for her good work.
I found, as everyone does, that we all started in Africa. Then went up through Asia, and ended up in Denmark. I have 4 gene mutations from the norm for the world, that's how they can track the migration. So due to 4 genes, we are all African.
Other interesting thing, our ancestors co-existed with the Neanderthals, same place, same time. I always assumed they had died out.
They even have a place on the site where you can contact genetic cousins all over the world, if you and they choose to.
See kids? It's called SCIENCE!
Problem is not there aren't jobs. problem is those jobs and 49,000 factories that closed here went overseas, for the most place.