As a food blogger, it’s hard to reconcile the abundance with the famine. It’s been eating at me for some time. This reality that as a western society we truly have no idea what it means to be hungry. We have TV networks solely dedicated to food. Competitions to create lavish dishes with mystery ingredients. Magazines that woo us to make our families happy with comfort food. Grocery stores whose aisles and shelves host copious amounts of food products all beckoning for our consumption and dollars.
Across the world, off the grid and out of our sight, a nation is starving. Africa is in crisis, friends. The United Nations is urging massive action to save millions of people dying in drought-stricken Africa. The U.S. Department of State said last week over 11 million people are in need of emergency assistance in the Horn of Africa. TheWashington Post reports the crisis in East Africa caused by severe drought and fighting in Somalia is deepening where tens of thousands of people – mostly children – have died.
WE are in a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Horn of Africa — including Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia.
10 million people in Africa are Hungry
and in Danger of Starving TODAY.
It’s overwhelming. Especially when we consider how to help. We mustn’t come at the crisis from a standpoint of guilt, but from compassion. Everyday we make hundreds of choices. Some little. Some big. Today, I’m asking each of you to join me and CHOOSE to make a difference. To use your voice, your time, your resources to help our brothers and sisters who are dying in Africa.
How? Take some time to see the choices these individuals and organizations are making. YOU can make a difference.
A Glimmer of Hope is an Austin-based non-profit organization that helps lift women and children out of extreme poverty in rural Ethiopia. Glimmer developed an entrepreneurial model to provide clean water + schools + health clinics + micro-finance loans, one village at a time. Husband and I have partnered with Glimmer to build a school classroom in the village of Robit. You can read more about our call to provide for the least of these here.
A Glimmer of Hope has launched an Emergency Relief Campaign to raise awareness and much needed funds. You can follow their blog for up-to-date information on the famine. Follow Glimmer’s Facebook page and on twitter. Join the dialogue and make some noise using hashtags #HornofAfrica #RaiseYourVoice
Fellow Christian faith blogger, Julie Sanders, has launched Somalia on Saturdays an invitation to Think. Pray. Give. each Saturday in August. From Julie’s blog Come Have A Peace: There are 4 Saturdays in August. On one or more of the Saturdays in August, will you forgo solid food with me and use the money, instead, to give it to meet needs in Somalia? I’m asking you to think, pray, and give for “Somalia for Saturdays.” I want us to remember to pray for those who are suffering every time a hunger pang strikes or the abundance passes us.
Julie has created a Facebook page and you can follow her on twitter and use hashtag #SOSproject
If you wonder, like I often do, if your voice and choices make a difference consider the stories of Janine Maxwell and Shayne Moore. Two ordinary women, called and equipped by God, to do extraordinary things for the poor and oppressed in Africa. I read their books in the past year and highly recommend both for encouragement that what YOU do matters.
I’m encouraged by Janine Maxwell’s story which led her from the corporate board room to the far corners of the world. Her story is one of courage, faith, obedience and yes, choices.
You can follow Janine on twitter and read about her family’s exciting move on their family blog Maxwell’s Moving to Africa. The Maxwell’s also have a facebook page.
I can identify with Shayne Moore. A soccer mom turned activist, Shayne is proof positive that one voice can make a difference. Convicted that silence wasn’t an option, Shayne has become a voice for HIV and AIDS crisis in Africa.
You can follow Shayne on twitter and on Facebook and read more about her journey on her blog You Can Make A Difference.
What do you say, friends? Shall we make a joyful noise and raise awareness to help those suffering today in Africa?
Love,
Kristin
Joy through hope and prayer and passing on this blog. Connected with Glimmer of Hope. ABC did a story on their nightly broadcast saying thousands were responding. That, is corporate prayer being answered!
My heart aches every time I see pictures of malnourished children in Africa. They need all the support. We have so much and it is just right to share. Thank you for introducing a Glimmer of Hope. I pray that more and more people will have the heart to reach out.