When you're up against an unrelenting dry spell that's claimed thousands of lives, Chris Tidey believes that even the smallest breakthrough can be a huge victory.

Consider the ability to swallow.

What seems like an unremarkable process -- an ordinary mechanism for any human -- has eluded three-year-old Mohammad for over a week.

It's a scenario that Tidey, a Canadian UNICEF worker based in the world's largest refugee complex, has been seeing all too often.

Loss of routine body function, wispy discoloured hair and nagging skin rashes are common among malnourished children in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, one of many East African nations in the thick of devastating drought and famine.

Amid the region's worst drought in 60 years, Tidey is thankful for even the smallest hint of progress.

While sitting in bed on Monday, after weeks of in-patient treatment at the camp, young Mohammad took back what famine stole: the ability to swallow.

It is a small mercy in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis.

More than 11 million people are estimated to need help in the drought that has crawled across East Africa, hitting countries like Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritea and South Sudan.

According to UN World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran, the "epicenter of the famine" is thought to be Somalia, where thousands of starving families have trekked across the arid border in search of food aid.

Dadaab field notes

Every day thousands of Somali refugees walk nearly 100 kilometres to seek refuge at Dadaab, where Tidey works as a communications officer for UNICEF.

It's a long way from Tidey's hometown of Mississauga, Ont., but after working in Haiti and Libya, the Ontario native is accustomed to being away from home.

For Tidey and thousands of refugees that spill into the complex each day, Dadaab is home -- at least for now.

Tidey recalls meeting a three-year-old boy named Aden who fled Somalia with his parents and three brothers.

"They walked for a month and a half, but his mother died along the way," he said. "When they arrived all four kids were completely malnourished."

Aden was in particularly dire straits. Like Mohammad, the young boy couldn't swallow and had to have a feeding tube inserted into his nose.

"He weighed five kilos; that's just crazy that a healthy three-year-old would weigh five kilos," said Tidey.

"The real objective for extremely malnourished children is to get them to the point where they're strong enough to eat on their own," he said.

"Depending on the case you can have rapid improvements."

Tight on resources

But improvement is tricky at a camp that is struggling to accommodate its growing community.

Tidey estimates that there are around 400,000 refugees currently living in the three massive camps that comprise the Dadaab refugee complex.

"Think of it this way," he said. "That's like the entire population of Hamilton crammed into a village that is only built for around 90,000 people."

At least 1,000 more people spill into the camp every day, he added.

Despite being the world's largest refugee complex, Tidey said that aid workers are finding it difficult to tend to their ever-increasing refugee population.

"Do we have enough resources? Quite frankly no," he said. "You're talking about people who are arriving here from across the border on a massive scale."

Efforts to save starving Somalis and others suffering from drought in East Africa were bolstered on Monday with UN agencies pushing for $1.6 billion from donor countries and private companies.

The agencies were urged to provide trucks, ships and other logistical aid after an emergency meeting called by France and hosted by the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The UN is now racing to gather $1.6 billion in aid over the next 12 months, with $300 million of that aid coming in the next three months.

With reduced access to supplies, a constant influx of new refugees and a persistent dry spell, working at the Dadaab complex has been a challenging experience for Tidey.

"It is a somber place to be right now," said Tidey. "Most of these people have suffered a great deal, they lost their livestock, their loved ones and more."

But still, Tidey insists, there is hope on the ground in Dadaab.

"That's not to say that you don't see smiles and hear laughter," he said.

Tidey has been tweeting from Kenya. You can follow him here.

With files from The Associated Press