Aid agencies warn of ‘lost generation’ in East Africa

ESAT News (March 27, 2017)

Aid agencies warn that six million school children in East Africa will have their education disrupted if funds aren’t raised and aid fails to be delivered.

The Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC), made up of 13 leading UK aid agencies, launched its East Africa Crisis Appeal last week to raise money for the 16 million people in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya who are at risk of starvation.

DEC said in a press release on Monday that it is highlighting the devastating impact drought and famine is having on children and their education.

Figures released by the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs showed that in Somalia and Ethiopia, nearly 340,000 school children are being forced out of education due to schools temporarily closing and in Kenya, 175,000 pre-primary and primary school children in ten counties are out of school due to the impact of drought.

In South Sudan, statistics released by UNICEF in 2016 showed 51% of children who are primary and lower secondary school age are out of education; the highest proportion of children not attending school in the world.