Donations help 183,000 people
Published 16 Aug 2012 10:00
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KIND-HEARTED Dumbarton and Vale residents have helped to raise more £17,000 to help the most in need in East Africa following the worst droughts in over 60 years.
The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) sent out an appeal following last year's drought and donations came flooding in to help those most in need.
With the funds that were donated through the appeal over 183,000 received help from SCIAF with people in Dumbarton donating a massive £15,266 and the Vale raising a further £2,182.
Emergency aid was sent to several African nations including Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea which saw over 10 million people affected by the lack of rain which left crops dry and water sources empty.
The donations have been warmly received in the countries and Lorraine Currie, head of International Programmes for SCIAF, thanked those who donated to help save thousands of lives. She said: "SCIAF supporters in Dumbarton and the Vale area really pulled out all the stops and donated a fantastic £17,448 to last year's Horn and east of Africa drought appeal.
"This money and the emergency support it provided helped to save many lives, and get people through what was a terrible crisis."
The funds were put to good use as they helped to pay for emergency cash payments, food and water to the most vulnerable, cash for work for the able-bodied to build up community resources like better wells, and replacing lost livestock and distributing drought resistant seeds to poor farmers to increase their resilience in the future.
Lorraine believes even though the worst has now past the Aid will continue for a long time to come.
She added: "Whilst the drought has now passed and the acute need of the people has dropped, SCIAF is continuing to work with its partners and local communities to increase their resilience against future droughts by distributing drought resistant seeds and rehabilitating community resources such as ponds and wells.
As a member of Caritas Internationalis, the global Catholic coalition of international aid and development agencies who are operational on the ground in most countries, SCIAF is usually able to respond immediately. This ability to be able to get aid to where it is needed quickly can mean the difference between life and death for vulnerable people."
IT was story time in Dragons Den - but there was no sign of Duncan Bannatyne or Theo Paphitis anywhere.
No these youngsters weren't being grilled about a new business proposal, they were at Loch Lomond Shores as part of their first storytelling event on Thursday. The Shores was celebrating after it unveiled its newly renovated children's play park and by the looks on these faces it was more "I'm in" than the famous TV stars catchphrase "I'm out".
The renovation sees a new story-telling space with a giant chair and toadstool seating as well a new mysterious secret den for the little readers to enjoy and ,judging by these pictures, it will be story time again soon for these lucky youngsters.
This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 14 Aug 12
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