Sudan (MNN) — According to the United Nations more than 1.3 million people in Southern Sudan are in danger of starving to death.
Tony Freitas with
ReachGlobal confirms those reports: "Three of our villages right now are pretty severely hit by it. Two weeks ago I received an e-mail from one of our pastors who is working in a village called Nagishot; inside that village, they had five people who died because of starvation."
Now they're working hard to try and find a way to get food into the region. But Freitas says it's been a challenge. "We are trying to get food in through Kenya right now, trying to see if Kenya will allow us to buy food. Kenya's border is closed because the famine has spread wide enough that Kenya has closed its border to any food leaving the country at this point."
If that doesn't work, they'll either try to ship food in through Uganda or through Somali and Ugandan traders that are bringing food to the market place and selling that food at higher prices.
The famine has been caused by drought, poor infrastructure and the inability to farm. Freitas says, "They were hit by drought last year, and they were just able to muddle through that one. Again this year they were hit by drought, and they didn't have the reserves or the food. Their first harvest died. They planted again, but there's a chance they could lose that one."
ReachGlobal is using Community Health Evangelism to help Sudan to use their locally-available resources to solve their problems. "They're also trained in taking Biblical principles that go along with what they have learned to share the Gospel with people in their community. The only real good side of this whole situation is the opportunity to take the Gospel to these people."
ReachGlobal is collecting money to help provide food to Sudan through the local church. Pray that many will respond to this need.
If you'd like to help Reach Global, click here.
