What Is In Your Pantry?


I was talking with my sister-in-law tonight about how the price of groceries seems to keep going up and up. Whether it's the cost of gasoline or just basic inflation--I don't know--but I sure felt like it was a real problem.

And yet...

And yet tonight in Ethiopia a mother has no food in her pantry to feed her children. I know the world still has the images of famine-starved African children in their minds when they think of a country like Ethiopia. Yes, there was a famine. But it's so much more than that, too. Every day mothers and fathers die to preventable diseases like typhoid and malaria, or they succumb to AIDS. When a parent dies, the other parent is left carrying the load of work and childcare and basic survival, and the downward spiral begins. There just isn't enough money to buy enough food or medicine or clean water to allow young children to live. There just isn't. The vicious cycle of extreme poverty sucks the life out of the next generation.

I don't think the solution is for the world to adopt all the orphans in Africa. I believe a better solution is to end extreme poverty and help rebuild the amazing countries in Africa to be self-sufficient and family strong. Adoption makes a difference in the life of one child, but it will not stop the hemorrhaging that is happening in places like Ethiopia. 6,500 Africans die EVERY day to PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE diseases. I remember when the tsunami hit and Americans were awestruck at the sheer number of reported deaths. And that happens every week in Africa.

Please, if nothing else, please go to your pantry right now and give thanks for the food you have. Give thanks that you will not be faced with the dilemma of watching your children starve.

Hurry home, Zenabu.