CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Nearly four million people in Tanzania face an acute food shortage, reports Action by Churches Together (ACT). Drought in 1996 and 1997 followed by floods in 1997 and 1998 have affected crops, and the number of people needing food assistance is likely to increase, according to ACT.
Flooding has cut off road and railway access to regions which faced food shortages due to drought, ACT reports. Travel is hardly possible over major roads linking one town to another. With the flow of commercial food restricted, prices in local markets have become higher than people with average income can afford.
ACT is a worldwide network of churches, including those of the Lutheran World Federation, meeting human need through coordinated emergency response. ACT needs $528,000 to accomplish its goals in Tanzania.
Through partners in Tanzania ACT plans to increase the availability of food in flood-affected areas. ACT will supply corn and beans, blankets, plastic sheeting, emergency shelter materials and other essential assistance.
ACT seeks to increase the capacity of local churches to make local resources available to people affected by the disaster. The affected area includes the North Western Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
Repair work on roads and railways will improve the movement of commodities among regions. ACT reports that the food situation should improve in the early summer, if there is a harvest at that time.
ACT will focus on helping school children, an especially vulnerable group. Due to the acute food shortage, students fail to attend classes and some are forced to hire themselves into the adult labor market in order to obtain money to buy food.
Health and medical conditions are worsening due to unsafe drinking water, inadequate daily diet and the lack of sanitation, according to ACT. Another factor affecting the health situation is standing and stagnant water which forms a breeding ground for mosquitos. Widespread malaria is expected, as is cholera and diarrhea.
ACT intends to reach "highly vulnerable" people who have not been covered by other food assistance, especially subsistence farmers in rural areas. With their lives disrupted by the flooding, people are coping with the situation by selling their assets, such as cattle, migrating to other places to live with relatives and building makeshift shelters on higher ground, ACT reports.
The Lutheran World Federation is a worldwide communion of 124 Lutheran church bodies, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
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