By Dr. Richard F. Gillum
Children in countries least responsible for climate change face greatest losses from the impacts. Climate shocks continue to ravish vulnerable communities and nations around the world. For example, severe drought in the Horn of Africa, the worst drought in decades, has created a food and malnutrition crisis impacting millions of children, while triggering waves of migration and spikes in violence.
The BBC reported that for many months, hundreds of thousands of Somali civilians have gathered across the plateau of rocky ground around the village of Baidoa displaced by the worst drought to hit Somalia for 40 years. Dahir, aged eleven, lost a younger brother to starvation on the way to the camp. His brother and sister were both severely malnourished and sick with measles, which kills many malnourished children. The supplies that had reached the camp were woefully inadequate to meet the needs for food and medicine. His family lost all their livestock before Dahir and his siblings left their farm for the camp. Their father stayed behind to try to salvage their sorghum crop. There are hundreds of other camps like this in Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, northern Kenya, and South Sudan.
Even though thousands of African children have starved to death and millions are hungry, few Americans are even aware of the crisis. Ukraine, political issues, sports, and celebrities have dominated the United States media. The US government has sent tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) make appeals for Ukrainian refugees, even though no one there is starving. Don’t the lives of black children in Africa matter? The intergovernmental organization, United Nations (the UN), has repeatedly requested aid globally, but the response has been poor.
United Methodist churches should inform themselves about this crisis and similar climate crises, pray for the victims, do fundraisers and special offerings to save these precious children’s lives. United Methodist churches can respond through their faith-based NGO, United Methodist Committee on Relief. UMCOR’s Advance #982450 earmarks funds for “Horn of Africa famine,” or give through the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF USA).
Further, churches can begin to urgently address one of the root causes of these disasters, climate change. People of faith must not go on with business as usual when brothers and sisters are dying because people in rich countries do not make changes to cut CO2 emissions to achieve the goals of the Paris Accord and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C. Information on how to act is readily available from the US Department of Energy, NGOs like Interfaith Power and Light , utilities, and annual conferences. Let’s all do our part now.
Links to articles if you’d like to learn more:
https://umcmission.org/story/responding-to-drought-and-famine-in-the-horn-of-africa/
Dr. Richard F. Gillum is a medical doctor, university faculty, and researcher with a focus on community and minority health. He is also a member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Creation Care Advocacy Ministry Group and board of Wellness and Mission. He resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.