Missions: Aid: Malawi lacks rain, lake-region farmers, people have no irrigation, AIDS is widespread

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Here's a report from Malawi, West Africa, about the continuing drout there. I got this item in an email newsletter from a aid oranization that helps homegrown Christian missionaries not tied to Western denoms, but which have opportunities to help their own people in areas where the mission has grown from scratch. Often they don't have funds to respond to emergencies and natural disasters, while being best able to do so. Of course, aided people sometimes want to check out their benefactors, espeically when the benefactors are their own people. For some this raises questions of "missions buying converts." You be the judge before you shell out, but have you ever given anything to faraway folks in dire straits? Treated here as a press release, the item is digitally republished without special permission. - Owlb

Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world, is still suffering from the famine that reached its peak toward the end of 2005. Drought caused crops to wither in the brutal heat. The price of corn soared beyond the reach of millions, forcing many to fill their empty stomachs with wild plants. Many waded into crocodile-infested lakes to pull up the roots of water lilies.

The president of Malawi declared the country a "disaster area," and warned that 5 million people, almost half the population, were threatened with starvation. In addition to famine, 14 percent of Malawians are infected with the AIDS virus; thus many farmers are too sick to work. They must choose to spend what little money they have on medicine or food.

Africa > Malawi

Approximately 12 million people are still in need of food aid due to drought and disease.

Ironically, most of the worst-hit villages were located in a fertile river valley fed with water from Lake Malawi. Farmers, however, who cannot afford wheelbarrows and other tools, had no way to transport the water to their fields.

Christian Aid was able to wire emergency funds to The Church of Disciples Mission, an indigenous ministry in Malawi. Since food is available if one has money to buy it, native missionaries were immediately able to buy and distribute food to the starving, and continue to lend aid to those in need. Help is needed for the ongoing crisis.

Churches started by the ministry have increased in number since the famine because many people learned about Christ’s love through the kindness of the gospel workers.

Here's a more analytic overview of hunger in Malawi that I found on Christian Aid site's search engine:

Food shortages in Malawi

Millions of Malawians have just faced the worst ‘hungry season’ in a decade. This year’s harvest is better, but it will take people years to recover.

Why were there food shortages?

Many parts of Malawi had a long dry spell early last year. The drought struck at a crucial time, and many families harvested nothing at all.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and food shortages are a long-term problem. Even in a ’normal year’ millions of people go hungry. Last year the situation was far worse than usual.

Living in such extreme poverty, poor Malawians have no assets to fall back on when disaster strikes.

Farmers depend on the rains to grow enough to eat. And if the rains fail, so do their crops. This year’s harvest has been better, but for the poorest families, who had no seeds to plant, it has not brought much relief.

And some families already weakened by hunger have lost their homes, animals and winter crops to floods.

The impact

During the worst months of hunger (January to May), many families were eating just one meal a day or less. The very poorest were going for days without food.

Families have had to find other ways to get food, including searching for wild fruits, and selling or bartering their possessions and animals.

Some women and older sisters have been turning to sex work to feed their families, putting themselves and others at risk of HIV infection.

What are our partners doing?

Thanks to those people who donated to our emergency appeal, our partners have been able to help more than 100,000 farmers survive this year’s crisis.

Partners have been:

• providing emergency food aid for the most vulnerable

• monitoring malnourished children and providing nutrition advice for parents

• distributing drought-resistant seeds and fertiliser so that people could plant crops for this year’s harvest

• providing water pumps so people can grow food all year round, without having to depend on the unreliable rains

• helping people set up small irrigation schemes by building dams and diverting streams

• showing people how to make their own compost, so they can grow more food

• distributing livestock such as goats and chickens so that poor families have a ‘safety net’ to fall back on if the harvest fails again.

More updates

‛We don’t have any food in the house…We haven’t had a meal for three days.' /03.06
• Pedalling past hunger /03.06
• Malawi food shortages: 'this year will be terrible' /19.12.05
• Christian Aid's Communications officer reports /01.11.05
• Malawi food shortages – a tale of two plots /27.10.05
• Malawi food shortages – the vulnerable are at risk /18.10.05

See further info on Christian Aid's relief work thru-out West Africa.

-- Owlb