On Saturday evening there was an important announcement posted at Clay Aiken’s Official Fan Club site.  Clay, as an UNICEF Ambassador, is promoting the PSA for the Horn of Africa.  Please stop by the OFC to read the announcement and, if you can, donate to help the children.  Remember…$10.00 will feed a child for 10 Days!!

According to UNICEF:

A tragedy of epic proportions is unfolding in the Horn of Africa, where hundreds of thousands of children are facing death due to starvation. The disastrous combination of a paralyzing drought, skyrocketing food prices and conflict has left over 11 million people battling hunger to survive.

UNICEF estimates that 1.85 million are in dire need of urgent aid. In some regions one in every three children is severely malnourished, their lives at risk.

The total number of Somali refugees that have fled to Ethiopia and Kenya in recent weeks to escape starvation is estimated at more than half a million.

There are strict benchmarks that must be surpassed in order for famine status to be reached:

1.      More than 30 percent of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition.

2.      Two adults per 10,000 people must be dying of starvation each day.

3.      20 percent of the general population must consume less than 2,100 kilocalories of food each day.

According to the UNICEF site:

Since the beginning of July, UNICEF has delivered 1,300 metric tons of life saving supplies to some of the hardest hit areas in southern Somalia, including enough therapeutic supplies to treat over 66,000 children malnourished children.

In an effort to prevent the outbreak of disease, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and essential medicines including vaccines are being airlifted to support massive vaccination campaigns that will be conducted over the coming weeks.

In order to step up operations and reach the most vulnerable children in the Horn of Africa, UNICEF estimates it will need USD$100 million over the next six months.

“UNICEF is using every means possible to reach every child. There simply can be no compromise on the objective to keep children and their families alive,” said Elhadj As Sy, Regional Director for UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa. “Every life must count and we cannot afford to lose more lives to this crisis.”

So…as Clay Aiken fans, what can we do?  The following is a list of easy things that we can all do to help.

1.      Be sure and watch the UNICEF YouTube.  It is important to get a large number of hits on the video.  You can see it here or at the OFC…AND be sure to leave a comment.  We want everyone to see this and realize that it is important to support this campaign.

2.      Visit the AOL Music article featuring Clay and his role as the UNICEF ambassador who is heading up this campaign.  At this site you can do lots of easy things.  There is a small icon of an envelope.  Click on it and you can e-mail the site to you friends.  Why not let your friends know that you support UNICEF.  I bet you could think of 10 people who should get the E-mail.  Make sure you comment at the AOL site. AND…don’t forget to “like” the article. This helps keep the article at the top of Google…more people can then read and react.

3.      If you can, donate some money to the $10 – 10 Days program.  This can be done at the OFC.

4.      Post this information at other sites that you visit…and don’t forget Facebook and Twitter.  Maybe we can get it to trend.  The more people that read about it, the more donations that will come in.

Have you any more ideas how we can support Clay Aiken, UNICEF and the kids on the Horn of Africa?  We would love to hear any ideas.

The following is the link to the AOL/Music article.  AOLMUSIC 

The following YouTube is from UNICEF.  Below that, I included a touching video from SueReu.  Clay’s music is a wonderful background to this beautiful video.