Coca-Cola donates more than $10m for famine relief in Africa Sahel region

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The Coca-Cola Company and The Coca-Cola Foundation will contribute more than $1.2m in cash and in-kind donations to immediate relief efforts that will be undertaken across affected countries, with an additional $9.6m allocated to community resilience and strengthening programmes within its continuing Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN).

The initial $1.2m emergency relief donation combines a $1m cash donation composed of $500,000 contributed to CARE’s work in Somalia and $500,000 contributed to eight NGO organisations that have formed the Global Emergency Response Coalition to deliver aid across 10 countries where more than 20-million people are at risk of famine. In Somalia alone, more than 6.7-million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, of which more than 1.4-million are severely malnourished children. The remaining $200,000 will be donated through in-kind contributions by Coca-Cola and its bottling partners, providing water and other beverages to those directly affected by the famine and drought, and supporting the awareness campaign of the coalition through local media.

New RAIN programmes

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will direct Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) programmes to famine and drought relief in five African countries which include new programmes in Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, and an initiative already underway in Somaliland. In total, the five programmes will support nearly 850,000 afflicted people in vulnerable communities and refugee populations with clean water, sanitation and training and programmes designed to help empower women and youth with economic opportunities. It is anticipated that The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s $9.6m investment in the programme will be leveraged with more than $28m in additional partner co-financing.

Organisations forming the Global Emergency Response Coalition include CARE, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision.