The spoof @LizJonesSomalia Twitter account has been posting "updates" all week from the Mail on Sunday's fashionista columnist. The decision  to send Jones to cover the famine crisis sparked outrage at first. But the parody Twitter account has attracted almost 6,500 followers, who are now being encouraged to contribute to the DEC's East Africa appeal.

Social media like Twitter can aid disaster response  Facebook and Twitter are helping to improve and speed up responses to natural disasters and health emergencies by involving members of the public, it has been claimed. Social media allowed an "unprecedented" two-way exchange of information between the public and those given the task of preparing for and responding to major events such as earthquakes, floods and infection pandemics, said researchers. "By sharing images, texting and tweeting, the public is already becoming part of a large response network, rather than remaining mere bystanders or casualties," said the US team led by Dr Raina Merchant, an emergency medicine expert from the University of Pennsylvania. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors say harnessing social media could help emergencies to be handled in a "quicker, more co-ordinated, effective way". The technology allowed officials to "push" information to the public while at the same time "pulling" in valuable data from bystanders. An example of social media in action was seen during the 2009 swine flu epidemic. The US Department of Health's "Mommycast" over YouTube and iTunes helped to keep one million viewers up to date about the disease, said the researchers. At the same time, regional health departments drew people to vaccination sites within minutes of texting and tweeting about shot availability. Within a year, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's @CDCemergency Twitter following grew 20-fold. More recently, texted photos of oil-covered birds from community residents assisted the clean-up operation after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Future social media strategies that could aid disaster preparedness and response included the use of GPS-linked mobile phone apps, such as Foursquare and Loopt, said the researchers. They could enable off-duty nurses or paramedics to broadcast their willingness to help in nearby emergencies. Another idea was the creation of web-based "buddy" systems allowing friends and neighbours to keep track of at-risk people during heat waves or cold snaps and connect them with social services and medical care. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds and mobile apps could also help public health planners gauge the strain on healthcare systems and divert patients to the best resourced facilities during a disaster, said the authors.

Following two rough years of drought in the Horn of Africa, the United Nations has declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia.

According to the UN, a famine means more than 30% of children in an area are malnourished, at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages and more than two people per 10,000 die each day.

Neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia are badly hurting as well. More than 12 million people are at risk of starvation as the region faces its worst drought in 60 years.

The situation in Somalia is particularly dire, as Al-Shabaab warlords (an Al-Qaeda affiliate organization) have until recently blocked foreign aid workers from the region. Somalis seeking food come to Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp, the largest U.N. refugee settlement in the world, by the thousands each day.

The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) began airlifting food to Mogadishu, Somalia, Dolo, Ethiopia and Wajir, Kenya on Tuesday. The U.N. has raised $1 billion for the region since November 2010 but says it will need another $1 billion before the year’s end to prevent widespread starvation in the region.

While overcoming this humanitarian disaster — which the WFP calls the highest global humanitarian priority — will not be easy, thankfully creative attempts to help are sprouting up across the web.

Here are four ways the web is responding:

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Bono Brings Blogger Moms to Kenya

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U2 frontman Bono and ONE brought 10 American mommy bloggers to Africa to connect with Kenyan mothers from July 23 to 30. The American moms shadowed community healthcare workers, met female farmers and visited one of Africa’s largest slums in Nairobi. The moms are sharing their experiences on their respective blogs, as well as on the organization’s blog, It Only Takes ONE Mom.

The bloggers and their readers are also discussing the trip on Twitter using the hashtag #ONEMoms.

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Africans Mobilize on Twitter

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Like most major international crises today, Twitter is the go-to forum for Africans to discuss the situation on the ground. Users are asking for the international community to send aid to the starving region of the world’s poorest continent. The International Business Times reported twenty tweets per minute relate to the famine in East Africa, using the hashtags #HornOfAfrica, #Famine, #Drought, #Somalia, #Kenya and #Ethiopia.

Groups such as Kenyans4Kenya, a campaign of Kenyans helping other Kenyans, have started to respond to calls.

The WFP also has a social media initiative, WeFeedback, for sharing food with the world’s neediest.

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Online Fundraising

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Legendary reggae group The Wailers and artists Duane Stephenson and Bishop Lamont recorded “A Step for Mankind” to benefit the WFP’s work to combat drought in the Horn of Africa. While the YouTube video was recorded in September 2010, the escalation of the disaster from drought to famine has led to a resurgence of the single’s sales online.

 

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George Harrison’s The Concert for Bangladesh

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In honor of the 40th anniversary of George Harrison’s The Concert for Bangladesh, a digital edition of the album will be released exclusively on iTunes on August 1. The two-part concert, organized by Harrison and Ravi Shankar in Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971, was the first benefit of its magnitude in history.

All proceeds from the reissue sales will go to the George Harrison fund for UNICEF, benefiting the children affected by drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

To wit, UNICEF declared August a “Month for Giving,” with artists such as Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Brian Wilson, Selena Gomez, Enrique Iglesias, Arcade Fire and Nas committing to spread word of the campaign to their followers on Facebook and Twitter.

The call to action on Facebook and Twitter was clear and was to prove to be the start of an amazing fundraising campaign harnessing social media. 

It was led by the charity Child's i Foundation and spearheaded by its inspirational founder Lucy Buck and her team.

“We have 48 hours to save Joey's life," it began. "He is very sick and will not make it unless we get him out of Uganda into cardiothoracic surgery. We need to raise money to fly him and his family for urgent medical attention. Please please help.”