Editorial December 9, 2002 Issue

Prayer about famine in Africa

Editor

Saki Mafundikwa worries about his wife and three children in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is in the US working on ways to improve the educational opportunities of Zimbabwe's next generation. Today, thougth, survival—even more than children's hunger for learning—is on his mind. He's concerned that his family, like millions of others in drought-stricken Africa, soon won't be able to feed themselves. "Despite our political and social problems," Saki says, "we Zimbabweans have always sustained ourselves by growing vegetables in private gardens, even in the middle of our cities. Drought is now making that close to impossible."

A recent series in The Christian Science Monitor reported that in six Afican countries alone some 14 million people are affected by the current famine ("At the Heart of Hunger, Six African Nations on the Brink," Nov. 12-15). As the Monitor reports, in addition to severe drought, there are many contributing factors—greed, corruption, mismanagement of funds, unfair distribution of wealth, AIDS. Considering the millions of people now affected by hunger, the problem can seem overwhelming.

Humanitarian organizations are making noble efforts to help. But because so many of the issues contributing to world hunger have their basis in thought, we believe that prayer — with its power to transform thought and impel action — is where the ultimate answer lies. No problem in the world is beyound the reach of prayer.

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