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FAMINES & DROUGHTS:
"And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Mat.24:7b
A wave of Giving. Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Even as people give generously to tsunami relief, disastrous famine and disease persist around the globe, with poverty and suffering at home.
Within weeks of the devastating Dec. 26 tsunamis that took more than 200,000 lives and left 5 million people homeless in 13 countries, people all over the world opened their wallets to donate generously to relief efforts.

International governments have pledged a record-setting $4 billion to assist victims throughout the Indian Ocean region. It's been an amazing outpouring of aid for a disaster that wrought its destruction in the blink of an eye but left the specter of diseases that could take many more lives.

As horrific as the tsunamis were, the event was but one disaster on a planet that is rife with misery. In Africa, the tsunamis that hit the eastern coastline countries of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa were minor catastrophes compared to the suffering caused by omnipresent famine and starvation brought on by civil war, tyranny, corruption and economies based on primitive farming methods. Epidemics of HIV infection and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria rage throughout the continent. Genocide is happening right now in the Darfur region of Sudan.


  
SOFI 2004 - Hunger costs millions of lives and billions of dollars :
Chronic hunger plagues 852 million people worldwide. Hunger and malnutrition cause tremendous human suffering, kill more than five million children every year, and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and national income, according to FAO's annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004 (SOFI 2004)..

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All over the world, millions of children die before their first birthday because their parents have no access to medicines and clean water. Millions more are blinded or disabled by easily preventable childhood diseases. In many parts of the world, basic illiteracy and lack of good schools prevent people from becoming productive and self-sufficient.

With so much need in the world, what was it about the Indian Ocean tsunamis that prompted people to give with such generosity?

"There are a several reasons I believe people are compelled to give to the tsunami tragedy," says Jackie Martin, executive director of United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast here in Houston. "First, there is the sheer magnitude of people who were lost and others affected by the tremendous loss. And, the media have put a face on this terrible tragedy by bringing it into our living rooms. They personalized it for us."

Yet, the local United Way office, which funds 100 area nonprofit organizations that work to relieve homelessness, poverty, hunger and family crisis, has seen diminishing donations over the past couple of years. The weak economy, the loss to Houston of several major corporate donors, the resulting unemployment and the lingering impact of Tropical Storm Allison were among the factors that threw off United Way giving.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, wrought another tragedy that brought out Americans' most charitable instincts. Some $1.5 billion in private donations — 43 percent of that amount from individuals — was raised to help victims of the attacks, according to the Foundation Center, a philanthropy clearinghouse. But that diverted some giving from local causes.

Normally, Americans concentrate their giving closer to home, according to a study by the Giving USA Foundation. In 2003, only 2 percent of the more than $240 billion in charitable donations raised in the United States went to international organizations.

Some charity workers say they are concerned that those who give to tsunami relief will reduce the amount they give to other causes. But the unique nature and sheer destructive force of the disaster clearly has compelled contributions from people who might not give to any cause during the year. If nothing else, the tsunami disaster is an opportunity to remember that there is anguish in many other parts of the world. Some of that suffering and need is right in our own back yard.

Billion Children Affected by War, Famine, Disease
PolitInfo.com - Baden-Baden,Germany
In its annual State of the World's Children report, UNICEF says half of the world's population of children suffer from poverty, violence or AIDS. ...