When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another? I have heard,” he said, “that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” Genesis 42:1-2

 

Persistent famine is a theme throughout the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. Abraham and Sarah suffered famine in their time and had to move the whole family and all they possessed into Egypt. Their son, Isaac, suffered through another famine. Isaac’s son, Jacob, endured yet another famine. Jacob’s son, Joseph, saved his family and many thousands more from a terrible famine that encompassed Egypt and surrounding countries in the Middle East.

 

Chronic hunger is also a modern problem that has not been conquered by advanced technology or improved growing methods. in Africa, nearly 30 million people are at risk of starvation.

           

Contributing Factors

Poor weather conditions, such as drought and flooding, are the most immediate causes of famine. Yet other areas of the world are able to weather drought, live on reserves, and purchase enough food from neighboring countries to sustain their populations. Many countries in Africa are not able to do so.

 

Even in a year when harvests are good, people in many African countries go hungry. Armed conflicts, corruption in government, mismanagement of food supplies, environmental degradation, unfavorable trade policies, and the irreversible effects of HIV/AIDS contribute in a deadly combination to food insecurity. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that every year, 40 to 50 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa suffers from hunger. The region today is worse off, in terms of nutrition, than it was 30 years ago.

 

Africa Famine Relief

UMCOR has released funds from the churchwide Southern Africa Famine Appeal, working through African United Methodist churches and ecumenical partners. Namibia has received $17,500 for seeds and a borehole well project, in addition to food assistance. Through Church World Service, $60,000 was sent to Malawi for an Action by Churches Together (ACT) appeal. Zimbabwe has received $180,000 to buy grain from South Africa through Christian Care, a South African organization. The Zimbabwe UMW has also received funds to provide food relief and implement health and nutrition programs.   The Methodist Church of Southern Africa received $114,801 for food aid, tools, and facilities for schools in Swaziland. The United Methodist Church of Mozambique has used $20,000 for food aid.   Southern Africa Famine, Advance #101250-4, continues throughout 2003. Contributions may be given through local United Methodist churches. Funds from this asking may also be used in Eastern Africa for famine relief.

AREAS IN FOOD CRISIS

Ethiopia, Eritrea

Eastern Africa has experienced the failure of two successive rainy seasons. Estimates put 6 million people at immediate risk of starvation and 8-9 million more in jeopardy in the coming months. In Eritrea, roughly two-thirds of the entire population, 2.3 million people, will need food aid.

 

Southwest Africa: Angola

Emerging from more than 40 years of civil strife, Angola has 1.5 million people who suffer from acute malnutrition. A significant number of these are the former UNITA rebels who are gathered in demobilization camps in the country.

 

Southern Africa: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

In the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 14.4 million face food shortages because of  droughts and the scourge of AIDS. Young adults who would normally be productive farmers either are too sick to work or have succumbed to and died of HIV/ AIDS. The burden of AIDS orphans has strained the community fabric of many towns and rural areas.

           

Report From Zimbabwe

Six million people, half the population of Zimbabwe, require food aid. Bishop Herbert Skeete has been assisting church leaders in the area. The Zimbabwe Methodist Church identified 20 of the most needy families, orphans of the AIDS program, and the blind to receive UMCOR’s first shipment of maize from South Africa.

 

The Zimbabwe United Methodist Church has proposed a program to order food from South Africa once a month and deliver it to four key industrial areas of the country: Harare, Bulaway, Musvingo, and Mutare.

 

“Zimbabwe’s food situation is getting critical,” said Bishop Skeete. The “land reform” that should have happened at independence didn’t happen. So President Mugabe recently decided to institute a new policy of taking large farms away from white industrial farmers and distributing them to black Zimbabweans. However, the former firms took the equipment and the new farmers have little experience, so Zimbabwe has seen a great dip in food production in addition to drought and floods.

 

Despite all the problems, the Zimbabwe church is providing comfort, safety, and food. “The situation of the AIDS orphans is very difficult,” Bishop Skeete said. “School administrators come to the churches with children whose parents have died. The children have no means of support to pay for their school fees. Now the church is moving to a model of small groups to care for orphans living together rather than the large orphanages of the past.”

 

St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Seke, Zimbabwe, recently presented the schools with a check for $48,000 (Zimbabwe dollars) for school fees.

 

“In Africa, they give out of their scarcity,” said Bishop Skeete. “It is a whole different kind of giving than we do here in the United States, where we give out of plenty. Out of their meager resources, they respond to the need.”

 

 

* Christie R. House is the editor of New World Outlook.