Dear friend,
When the UN releases its next major report on the impacts of the climate crisis later this month, the findings will reveal more about what we know to be true: climate change is more than an environmental crisis — it is a human crisis. Climate disasters have forced people from their homes, destroyed livelihoods, and pushed more people to the brink of starvation.
People who have contributed the least to warming the globe are feeling the most acute impacts of climate change — right now. That’s why Mercy Corps partners with communities worldwide that are deeply affected by climate change to help them overcome unprecedented disruptions to their health, nutrition, and livelihoods.
Iriama cares for her kitchen garden in Uganda, a country which is facing severe food shortage due in part to climate change. She learned how to grow her garden through Mercy Corps’ mother care groups.
Our work focuses on four key outcome areas: Food security, water security, economic opportunity, and peace and good governance. Climate change is impacting all of these.
And right now, as the global food crisis spins further out of control, our teams are seeing firsthand how the changing climate is creating deeper food security challenges. Here are a few examples of those challenges — and how Mercy Corps offers localized, long-term solutions to help people cope, adapt, and thrive:
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Challenge: In Uganda, climate change has led to unreliable rainy seasons, causing severe drought and unreliable harvests.
Solution: Mercy Corps trains women peer groups to create “kitchen gardens” to provide their families with reliable vegetables that can grow year-round using seasonal river water.
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Challenge: Severe flooding in Nepal causes rivers to change course, damaging crops and washing away entire rice paddies.
Solution: Mercy Corps provided seeds, fertilizer, and training to help farmers grow sugarcane along the river, which mitigates erosion from floods and protects their rice.
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Challenge: Livestock are dying of hunger and thirst as a result of the drought in Ethiopia, destroying a key source of both food and essential income.
Solution: Mercy Corps invests in emergency feed and veterinary care for pastoralists’ precious livestock, and helps families access markets to sell their animals more quickly.
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More than 345 million people worldwide are facing acute food insecurity. For them, climate change is a daily reality as changing weather patterns make growing and buying food increasingly difficult.
With hunger at an all-time high, the global community must act now. The drought in the Horn of Africa has already left at least 18.4 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia in desperate need of food assistance — this figure could increase to 20 million in the coming weeks.
As a member of our global community, we know you’re committed to helping families around the globe adapt and adjust to climate challenges. Will you take a moment today to declare your commitment to communities most affected by the climate crisis? Add your name to our climate change pledge.
Our goal is to collect 50,000 signatures that will show the collective strength of our supporters who care about global communities in need of humanitarian aid — from Somalia to Yemen and beyond — to help them cope, adapt, and thrive in the face of the food crisis brought on by climate change.
In partnership,
Craig Redmond
Senior Vice President of Programs
Mercy Corps
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