Mana Abdalla is the mother of eight. The youngest is only six months old and is usually on her hip. Her oldest child, 15-year-old Omar, often translates for her.
At Denver's East 13th Avenue Community Garden, each family has a small patch. It helps feed Abdalla's family, but there is not much the Somali refugee can do with the garden to help her family back in her native country.
"She feels really, really bad because her dad lives right there and he's going through the same problems," Omar said.
A massive famine has swept through the Horn of Africa due to a drought affecting more than 11 million people in parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, northeastern Kenya and especially in Somalia.
In Abdalla's homeland of Somalia, life was already hard enough. She left 14 years ago because of the violence. There was constant fighting between government forces and Islamist militants, who often abuse civilians.
"If you have food and you cook it, you don't even serve it to your family. They just come and take it," Omar translated for his mother. "Like, they're just gonna kill your brother in front of you, rape your sister in front of you."
After leaving Somalia, Abdalla spent seven years in a Kenyan refugee camp before finally getting a visa to the U.S.
Now, hundreds of thousands of Somalis are once again crowded into refugee camps in Kenya. Many are barely alive when they get there - if they get there. They're forced to make the dangerous trek out of southern Somalia because the militants won't let humanitarian aid groups come to them.
Despite that, every day, thousands more arrive at the refugee camps and aid workers are struggling to keep up with demand for food and medical care.
"It makes me feel bad because that could have been me over there. Without the government bringing us here, that could have been me dying like that," Omar said.
He says he is grateful for the chance to be a regular American teenager.
"My little brothers come out here [to the garden] everyday," he said.
If you would like to help those in East Africa, here are some resources:
UNICEF: Text FOOD to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10, enough to feed a child for 10 days or provide 321 sachets of nutrient powder to boost infant survival and development.
Red Cross: Make donations online at http://www.redcross.org.au/ or by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW.
Doctors Without Borders: Donate here or by calling 1-888-392-0392.
Save the Children: Click here for ways to give.
The World Food Programme: Donate $10 by texting the word AID to 27722 or make a donation online.
World Vision: Donate online.
The International Rescue Committee: Donate online.
Oxfam International: Donate online.
Source: KUSA-TV - Multimedia Holdings Corporation
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