Africa Gets Forgotten

I’m fasting today, and raising money for World Vision Canada. They’re fighting hunger in the developing world. You should donate.

This Christmas, there was an earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The ensuing tsunami killed an estimated 300,000 people. Celebrities, politicians and the average joe rallied to the cause, and donated upwards of 10 billion dollars worth of aid. That was a wonderful outpouring of generosity, but it highlights how media coverage and intertia can drive a particular cause into the stratosphere. The same thing happened with Ethiopian relief in the late eighties. Unfortunately, lately, we’ve kind of forgotten about Africa:

• In the last year and a half, 300,000 people have been killed and over 2 million displaced in Darfur, due to the Sudanese war.
• 300,000 Africans die of AIDS every 45 days or so, and the rate is increasing. 45 million people were infected by 2002. A third of the adults in Zimbabwe are infected.
• Every 3.6 seconds, somebody dies of hunger.

If we raise $1000, that will feed three children in the developing world for a year. Against those numbers, three doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s the least we can do. And, heck, it beats zero.