August 4, 2005

CHICAGO – Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are participating in international relief efforts to address the food crisis in Niger, a country in western Africa.

An estimated 3.6 million people – about 30 percent of the population of Niger – are in critical need of food, said Dr. Belletech Deressa, director for international development and disaster response, ELCA Division for Global Mission.

The United Nations reported that more than 800,000 children in Niger are suffering from hunger and many others show signs of severe malnutrition, Deressa said.

The current famine is a result of severe drought and "swarms of locusts that destroyed crops in 2004," she said.

On July 29 the United Nations began airlifting 44 tons of emergency food rations to famine-stricken areas of Niger, Deressa reported. Lutheran World Relief – the Baltimore-based overseas relief and development organization working on behalf of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod – "has been supporting its local partners in Niger for many years," she said.

Through the church's International Disaster Response, members of the ELCA sent $40,000 as an initial response to an emergency appeal issued by Action by Churches Together – a worldwide network of churches and related agencies that meets human need through organized emergency response. It is based with the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation, both in Geneva, Switzerland.

Coordinated by the ELCA Division for Global Mission, International Disaster Response often channels its funds through international church organizations and relief agencies. Funds provide for food, medicine, drinking water, emergency shelter and other materials for survivors of disasters.

"We ask members of the ELCA to pray for people affected by the famine in Niger and to pray for rain that enables farmers in Niger to produce food for their families," said Deressa. "We pray for Lutherans to give to the ELCA International Disaster Response and ELCA World Hunger Appeal."

ELCA News Service