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East Africa needs urgent help, but a long-term support for the improvement of livelihoods is the way to protect against extreme hunger

Hunger in east Africa has been part of our consciousness for so long now – from the 1984 famine and Band Aid onwards – that it's hard to blame anyone who says they're tired of hearing about it. Against that backdrop, it's understandable that people can feel torn between humanitarian concern and a feeling of hopelessness – that whatever they give, and whatever aid agencies do, it will never be enough to make a real difference. So it's important to stress that we in the Red Cross, and others, are appealing now because the situation has reached a crisis point.

In some areas this is now the worst drought since come more than half a century, and the number of refugees from Somalia in southern Ethiopia in search of food has skyrocketed - from 5,000 to 30,000 a month in the second week of June alone. People leave don 't their homes and livelihoods as a last resort. It means they are desperate, and it 'sa recognized early indicator of famine.

In response, the British government has pledged ? 38m in food aid for Ethiopia, and many organizations, including ourselves, are appealing for emergency funds to assist in the Horn of Africa. There is absolutely no doubt that help is urgently needed by millions of people trapped in an unimaginably desperate situation, and that the donations made by people here in the United Kingdom will save lives. I appeal to give to the people and give as much as she can.

But these donations mean, the people of East Africa are not in a similar position this time next year? That 's difficult to guarantee. In the Horn of Africa, droughts are regular fact of life. But it 'sa complex web of factors - including conflict, food and fuel prices and poverty - that can combine to scenes of desperate hunger, to the finely balanced environment leading up to the top as we are experiencing today.

This is a chronically vulnerable situation in which communities drift in and out of the food crisis. One of the things that will make a long-term difference in this region is to help people be more able to meet with these fluctuations. The Red Cross has worked on improving the resilience of the entire region. The Ethiopian Red Cross has a program for food security, environmental rehabilitation, development of access to water, and includes the promotion of income-generating activities for communities. The Kenyan Red Cross has rehabilitated wells and conducted pre-crisis distribution of seeds, greenhouses and livestock to help people increase their resilience. A recent British Red Cross program in the urban areas of Djibouti made available to help small cash loans, vulnerable families to build small businesses and earn enough money to buy food.

Today 's situation is so bad that the only realistic option in many cases, emergency food aid. But although it undoubtedly saves lives, helping them doesn 't build resilience and may, in fact, destabilize the local markets and lock families into dependence. Life-saving support should begin months or years before the crisis is to assist people in good times so that when bad times strike, the reserves in order to prevail.

But if it 'convincing appeal to s hard to weary donors, while giving a full-blown emergency, it' s even more difficult, financial support, if rain is Garner fallen, are growing and animal husbandry multiplied when the families, who often recovers nor the last crisis need support in order to be able to fully present to the favorable conditions in order to use them. But it is precisely those times when they made long-term work to try and actually change the outlook for communities in the Horn of Africa should be.

Today, with support long-term benefits to help relax people and improve their livelihoods - to help people grow crops and livestock, and improve long-term access to water - is to be rolled up next to emergency food aid. But much of what can only be funded through money raised at the back of this acute crisis. We better be from the aid sector, the case for investment in the times in which to show it no embarrassing pictures or to tell harrowing stories.

Emergency food aid appeals to save lives, but they don 't solve the basic problem. This requires a different, less sensational confrontation with the media, with the government and the public - and it must be achieved before any offer by us capable of delivering real solutions to extreme hunger in Africa.