Food security - Special humanitarian relief travel operator, Key Travel, is working round the clock to find flights for aid workers trying to reach the famine areas in East Africa through Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, said Patricia Orr, the travel company’s spokesperson. In a statement sent to PANA here, Orr friday said that the company’s special humanitarian fares and emphasis on ‘duty of care’ meant that they were much in demand by members of the Disasters Emergency Committee and other relief charities needing to get personnel and supplies to the stricken Horn of Africa.

“As the disaster worsens, air travel through the main international gateways of Nairobi and Addis Ababa are in ever greater demand by charity workers,” said Orr, adding that staff at Key Travel were making exhaustive efforts to find affordable rates and flexibility as they mixed and matched outbound and inbound airline carriers to accommodate the essential travel.

Meanwhile, Serena Barkes of Save the Children, reported that they were recruiting emergency workers to help stem the worst drought crisis in the region for 60 years. 

Barkes said the relief body was keen to send additional emergency experts out to affected areas to help with the ongoing disaster.

With full flights, due largely to holiday makers, Orr said Key Travel was providing minute by minute information on any cancellations, assisting with visas and bending over backwards to try and find suitable travel alternatives. 

According to Key Travel chairman, Ajaya Sodha, the missionary fares they offer are vital for aid workers who do not know how long they will be needed and therefore have to rely on flexibility and 24-hour support. 

Salma Begum from Islamic Relief reported: “We have some of our staff out in the field assessing needs for our appeal and are due to send out another more senior delegation shortly.” 

Begum was liaising with Key Travel over logistics as she knew only too well the number of safeguards that need to be in place for missions of this kind. 

“With increasing numbers of refugees desperately in need of food and help arriving each day the situation is critical - a race against time,” Sodha explained. 

“Aid workers have to go at short notice to some of the most inhospitable and risky places around the globe.  Getting these crucial people to where they need to be to conduct their vital work as quickly and efficiently as possible is of paramount importance to us,“ he added.

Key Travel is Europe’s leading travel management company (TMC), dedicated exclusively to the not-for-profit sector, and for over 30 years has been helping clients maximise travel budgets through cost-effective and flexible travel solutions.

Working with over 2,000 not-for-profit organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Tearfund, it specialises in getting humanitarian and academic workers to difficult places in a safe and cost-effective way.

The African Union (AU) Commission late Thursday said urgent humanitarian assistance was crucial to alleviate the impact of the drought which had deprived people of water, sanitation, health, basic food and nutritional needs.

The Horn of Africa and in particular, Somalia, is experiencing the most severe drought of the past five decades. Over 12 million people are affected by drought and famine.

Appealing to its Member States to raise resources in order to respond immediately to the situation and save lives in the Horn of Africa, the Commission announced that a Pledging Conference on the Situation in the Horn of Africa, earlier planned for 9  August, will now be convened on 25 August, 2011, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Conference, which will include representatives of the African private sector, non-governmental organizations and AU partners, aims to galvanise resources on the continent in order to fill the funding gap, put together an emergency response, and to sensitise African leaders and the international community on medium and long term crisis mitigation strategy.

Prior to the Pledging Conference, the Commission said, 15 August will be a special day dedicated to African voice call on the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa and in Somalia in particular, where 3.3 million lives are endangered.

Pana 05/08/2011