Orphans at the Gate

Stark and Unsettling Facts

Political and civil unrest in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Darfur, to name a few, has had a serious effect on the food supply in various ways. Farmers have been displaced, aid operations imperiled, crops and food stores deliberately destroyed by warring factions. Prices rising in the world rise faster in the face of political instability.
Drought is a bleak reality in many African nations. According to the Christian Aid Office in Nairobi, some areas of Kenya have had the worst rainfalls since the early 1960s. Northern Kenya has had less than 25% of the average rainfall, putting 80% of its population at risk. An added consequence is that low water levels at hydroelectric dams results in regular power cuts of at
least twelve hours a day.
The thousands of Kenyan refugees who have found their homes and belongings destroyed are now part of a long queue for humanitarian aid. Those “starving at the gates” have increased in
number and severity. It is now not only the elderly and very young who are at risk; adults and older children are facing malnutrition if not outright starvation.
With food supplies virtually depleted in Kenya, many Kenyan people are getting their food fromUganda, putting pressure on available food stocks there. Increased demand forces prices higher for both Uganda and Kenya. On top of record-breaking prices for rice, maize and wheat, there is a wheat fungus, first discovered in Uganda and now spreading across the African continent. A banana wilt disease has been reported spreading in Uganda and Kenya.
At this time of greatest need, many aid agencies that focused on feeding the most vulnerable are finding themselves stretched incredibly thin. The same aid-dollar simply does not go as far as it
did before food and fuel costs escalated.
(The devalued U.S. dollar further reduces our buying power.) Additionally, projects that may have a longer-term positive effect are being increasingly suspended in order to purchase emergency
food supplies. Charitable giving worldwide is at an all time high—but the needs of the poor, especially in Africa, have increased exponentially.
Are There Any Solutions? There are both short-term and long-term methods of addressing the
food crisis in Africa. The most immediate, of course, is emergency food aid. At the recent U.N.-sponsored Food Security Summit in Rome, attended by delegates from 181 nations, thirteen of those countries pledged 5.8 billion dollars in additional aid. Some of that will be available to alleviate current suffering.
The U.N. World Food Programme promises US$1.2 billion in new food aid. A recent coalition  eeting in Nairobi made a commitment to increase Kenya’s food reserves in maize and grain, importing millions of bags as a temporary measure.
However, longer-term measures are critical. Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General stated, “The era of food aid is over—there is no more sending food from America to Africa.” Instead, he
calls for donors to do more to improve agricultural practices, with donations of tools, fertilizers, seeds, silos, and knowledge (nytimes.com/2008/06/06).
David Beckman of Bread for the World agrees. He suggests that the long-term solution is seeds and technology, as well as a decent road to market.
Those of you who have visited Kenya can attest, along with Beckman, that “if you drive a truck of fertilizer into rural Kenya, you’re gonna break the truck because the roads aren’t there.”  Improving the agricultural infrastructure is part of the Food Summit’s goal. A “Smallholder Agricultural Revolution” is what the African Development Bank thinks is the best hope for the continent.
The president of the group notes that the world has the means to prevent starvation: providing
hungry peopl ewith the means to feed themselves.  His words are similar to the old adage of
“If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for lifetime.” To that end, the Bank Group is allocating significant funds to purchase fertilizers and other supplies.  They want to turn farming in Africa into a business, rather
than a means of scraping by.  Quite interestingly, the AfDB President also calls for a policy bias in favor of women and girls, who comprise more than half of Africa’s farmers.
Some scientists posit that the green revolution that increased crop yields in the middle of the twentieth century may happen again through radical science.  Researchers are investigating how to make staple crops (wheat, rice, maize, and soy) more pest and weed-resistant, more nutrient-rich, and high yielding.

Challenges for Hearth to Hearth Ministries (an organization helping African Orphans)

We have made a commitment to support our five orphanages with food supplies.  Vicki Kritzell notes that when our sponsorship fees were set in 2001 the price of grains and beans were 1/3 of the current cost. Potatoes have tripled in price as well. There are still 150,000 refugees in Kenya, some of them farmers whose crops were either destroyed or rotted in the field, unharvested.
As noted above, some grain is imported from Uganda,with the cost of transportation further driving up the cost. One liter of fuel is over $6.00, and Uganda is approaching its own shortages. At the end of May, the food requisition for the Kenya orphanages totaled $26,500, without including the ones inUganda! The shrinking supplies caused Pastor Maurice to report that he might not be able to purchase food no matter how much money we have. The prospects are frightening.
Further complicating matters, you know that our main grain purchaser was killed in tribal reprisals, and there is difficulty in finding a similarly reputable and compassionate buyer. We have also tried to help feed the starving people at the gates of the orphanages, as we also gave them shelter during the political crisis.
Finding and buying food for over seven hundred refugees stretched our resources to the  breaking point.
Studies have shown that in the face of staggering tragedy we often shut down emotionally. We can’t wrap our minds around millions of people starving, one child dying every five seconds.
However, when people can see a personal face, an individual need, generosity comes more easily. That is one of the beauties of the Hearth to Hearth Ministries.  There is one Yvonne or Arnold, one sweet face to support; or one specific widow’s family. The millions get concentrated down to one.

This Article reprinted from the July 2008 issue of Spotlight on Orphans Extra.