While no cases of COVID-19 have been reported amongst the Kara Tribe of the Omo Valley, the unexpectedness of the global pandemic, compounded by ongoing political and social unrest in Ethiopia, has dramatically increased food insecurity in this already vulnerable region.

In January 2020, Miyamoto Relief sent a team of engineers and humanitarians to the Omo Valley, where climate change and recently-built hydroelectric dams on the Omo River had eliminated the floodwaters on which the Kara rely for irrigation of crops. Two short months later, as COVID-19 began spreading throughout the world, the previously self-sufficient Kara began experiencing mass food shortages and starvation — causing a breakdown in cultural traditions and forcing families to abandon their homes.