In 2011, House of Mercy Children’s Home, Lagos, Nigeria (HOM) showed solidarity with the children of the Horn of Africa by lending its support to on-going efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of the Horn of Africa who were hit by the worst drought in 60 years.
The crisis affected the whole Horn of Africa region with 13 million people in need of emergency assistance in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti at the height of the crisis.
Our vision is of a prosperous and peaceful African continent where every child has access to healthy food on a daily and regular basis and is enabled to reach his or her full potential.
According to a research carried out by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), an estimated 50 billion dollars leave Africa illicitly every year mostly to Western countries while at least one trillion dollars have left Africa secretly over the last 50 years. About 75% of resources that leave the continent’s shores in secrecy are traceable to corporate tax avoidance in the form of trade mispricing by multinational corporations, many with headquarters in G7 countries; debt burden or colonial tax imposed on many former colonies; and criminal networks engaged in drugs and human trafficking, animal poaching, and theft of oil and minerals. Only 5% of the illicit financial flows are traceable to official corruption such as payment of bribes and kickbacks by foreign corporations to government officials so that the country can relinquish control of its natural resources and resource extraction operations. These funds could otherwise have been used for investments in power supplies, schools, hospitals, housing, sanitation, transportation, safe roads and other much needed public services.
Business as usual is not an option for Africa. Delivering and sustaining results for children will require not only action by both governments and the public at large but also a wholesale change in the way we think and the way we act. With adequate social investment in the health, education and protection of children aligned with financial transparency, good governance, enforcement of law and order, natural resource governance and sound economic and environmental management and planning, Africa has the potential to give all the continent’s children the opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential.