Story number 2 for 21 Aug 2002

(Zambia)–Next, Southern Africa faces its worst food crisis in a decade. That’s according to the United Nations World Food Program, which expects the number of people requiring immediate food aid to rise to almost 13 million by the end of the year. But, according to SIM missionary Bob Carter, in some areas of the country, one-third to one-half of the future generation is most at risk. “It’s the children who suffer the most from malnutrition, the orphans especially, who have the least access to food, to health care, to education to all of these other things.” Carter says the problems are not easily solved, but calls upon the believers to respond to critical physical and spiritual needs. “The approach to overcome malnutrition is extremely complicated and extremely broad-based-then of course, HIV/AIDS, that’s a big issue there, and as AIDS increases, so does the incidences of tuberculosis, and so here, we need to really mobilize the church to do what the church is supposed to do.”