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THOUSANDS of desperate people in East Africa will benefit from life-saving aid, thanks to new emergency grants from the States of Jersey.
The Jersey Overseas Aid Commission (JOAC) has donated a total of £60,000 to global children’s charity Plan UK to help people living through emergencies in Mozambique and Kenya.
In Mozambique, the funding will be used to help provide hygiene and dignity kits to families who have been affected by severe flooding.
The floods have killed at least 163 people and affected thousands of families, with many losing their homes and crops.
The kits, which provide essential items, such as soap, sanitary towels and clothes, will be distributed to 500 of the most vulnerable families, some of whom have seen their homes destroyed.
In Kenya, more than 66,000 people will benefit from a programme aimed at preventing the spread of cholera.
More than 1,300 cases of the water-borne disease have been confirmed so far, with a further 350,000 people at risk.
The grant will help Plan build clean toilets and water storage tanks in communities, as well as training health workers and distributing water purification tablets and soap.
“The Commission is pleased to support the work Plan is doing in these emergencies in East Africa, which we hope will ultimately help save thousands of lives,” says Carolyn Labey, Chairwoman of the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission.
“Already having a presence in these communities means that Plan is able to deliver aid quickly through its established partners thus preventing further loss of life in such difficult situations,” Carolyn adds.
Tanya Barron, Chief Executive of Plan UK, says: “The funding the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission has donated will help improve and save the lives of many children and their families in Kenya and Mozambique.
“We are extremely grateful to the people of Jersey for their generosity and compassion. These grants are a huge help to some of the world’s poorest people in times of great crisis.”
Over the lifetime of the partnership, JOAC has helped more than one million people through Plan, including improving water, sanitation and hygiene in Uganda and enabling hundreds of children go to school in Cambodia and Zimbabwe.
It has also contributed to Plan’s emergency response work with refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, internally displaced people in Sudan, and with its cholera prevention activities in Cameroon.
Plan is a global charity working with the world’s poorest children and their families, so they can move themselves from a life of poverty to a future with opportunity.
For more information on Plan’s work or to make a donation call 0800 526 848 or visit www.plan-uk.org
