“Canadians have not forgotten about malnourished children on the other side of the world, and their generosity has enabled us to provide supplies and services to children who would have died without it,” said David Morley, President and CEO, UNICEF Canada. “However, we need to act now to save more lives. We’re calling on all Canadians to help now – before the famine in Somalia spreads further and while the Canadian government is matching donations.”

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is matching individual donations for the Horn of Africa until September 16 to help the 13.3 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

UNICEF is the leading supplier of therapeutic foods in the Horn of Africa and works to quickly assess and treat malnourished children. In most cases, the bicep of a severely malnourished child is often no more than the size of a Twoonie. These malnourished children are given immediate treatment with therapeutic milk and Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) such as Plumpy’Nut®, a high impact peanut paste fortified with essential vitamin and minerals. Once treated, a child can recover fully.

When 3-year-old Aden left his famine and conflict-stricken community in Somalia for the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, his 5 kg body was perilously close to shutting down. Aden received treatment at the stabilization centre upon his arrival, and over the course of weeks he grew stronger, improving in small increments each day. Now he eats solid foods and is able to stand with support for a few seconds at a time. Some 190,000 children in Somalia are like Aden, and UNICEF and partners are rapidly scaling up operations to reach every child.

By mid-August, UNICEF delivered close to 4,000 metric tons of life-saving supplies to the hardest hit and hardest-to-reach areas of Somalia alone. The 800 feeding centres across Somalia, including 500 in the south, assist 35,000 malnourished children monthly. Plans are underway to more than double efforts to reach 100,000 children.

The magnitude of the crisis requires UNICEF to be creative and find fast and innovative ways - at scale - to prevent more children from dying. UNICEF is also complementing food assistance with food vouchers and cash transfers to reach all in need.

Canadians can support UNICEF's emergency efforts in the Horn of Africa by donating online at unicef.ca, calling 1 800 567-4483, or texting GIVE to 45678 to donate $10. Donations will go a long way:

• $50 donation will supply 100 packages of Plumpy’Nut®
• $100 will supply 40 sachets of therapeutic milk
• $250 will supply food relief bundles of over 200 Plumpy’Nut® packages and 3,571 High Energy Biscuits which are rich in protein
• $500 will supply 11,904 High Energy Biscuits

In emergency response, UNICEF is a leader in inter-agency relief efforts to treat malnourished children, provide maternal and child health services, prevent the spread of disease, improve access to clean water and sanitation, safeguard education, and protect vulnerable children.