The Horn of Africa is in the grips of a devastating and lingering famine and drought that has claimed an overwhelming number of lives, many of them children.

And like what has been seen in many disasters — international and domestic — a helping hand has come from the auto business.

To aid this region, Nissan is donating $140,000 to the United Nations World Food Program with the aim of quelling some of this rampant hunger.

The donation will go toward bringing the victims in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya the food they so desperately need. The efforts will particularly aid children, who are most susceptible to malnutrition.

In fact, in a summary of a press conference earlier this week from Valarie Amos — the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs — the U.N. said on its website that the child deaths are in the “tens of thousands.”

“Nissan is greatly saddened by the famine in East Africa, which has now reached critical levels. Our thoughts are with those affected by the crisis, and we wish the World Food Program and all other humanitarian organizations and individuals working within the region, every success in their vital efforts,” said Gilles Normand, Nissan’s corporate vice president for Africa, Middle East and India.