Amid a warning that a famine is “at the doorstep” in eastern Africa, church leaders are re-stressing urgent action to save millions of people caught in a drought described as the worst in 40 years.
Churches in South Africa are actively responding to the flood disaster in KwaZulu Natal, in which at least 440 people have died. The floods—the strongest to hit the province in recent times—were triggered following a week of heavy rainfall in the province bordering the Indian Ocean in the east of the country.
They came from governments, the United Nations, civil society, churches and other faith-based organizations to discuss the impact of Cyclone Idai that has wreaked death, havoc and destruction on Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in recent weeks.
Even though flood survivors are displaced in some 2,000 relief camps across Kerala in south India, many of them observed the indigenous Malayali festival of Onam on 25 August in whatever way they could. The traditional festival, for thousands, carried an even more poignant meaning because the holiday celebrates the return of joy to the land: the story of the return of King Mahabali, considered to be a very kind and generous ruler, during a “golden period” in Kerala.
As Kerala, the southern state of India, nicknamed “God’s Own Country,” battles one of the worst flood disasters in a century, various religious communities have opened their doors to help homeless people.
The story shared by Fr Yakoub Babawe of the Oum-El-Nour Relief Committee of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Iraq’s city of Erbil moved and challenged participants at a recent meeting in Beirut.
In comments to staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 18 August, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed alarm at the âblocking and hindering of the food supply in famine-struck Somalia, with the effect that more and more people are dying. This interference with humanitarian aid is inhumane and must be strongly condemned.â
The ACT Alliance, bringing together over 100 church-backed relief and development organizations worldwide, has been formally launched on 24 March with celebrations in Geneva and around the world.
