AFRICA/MALAWI - "Hunger is a silent war that is killing Malawi", says a missionary

Tuesday, 14 June 2016 hunger  

Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides) - "Hunger is a silent war that is killing Malawi", writes Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba, Monfortan missionary from Malawi. "Hunger for many families means one meal a day, a collective fasting for all the poor in this month of Ramadan. Wheat now costs $ 13 per 50 Kg and people repeat: it is just the beginning".
"Only two things are increasing in Malawi: the population, which has reached 17 million, and the large gap between rich and poor, which is expanding dramatically".
"What worsens the general impoverishment is also the growth of prices on everything. There is absolute hunger in the prisons of the Country when the only alternative is to release those who are literally dying of hunger.
The situation in prisons is at the limit of endurance because among the 13,000 inmates over two thousand are sick with AIDS and as many receive antiretrovirals - people without adequate nutrition have no hope of surviving -. The Prison Service is indebted with suppliers to the point that no one wants to provide them the food that is not regularly paid. Cases of cholera have risen to 1500".
The response of the political class to this situation is disheartening.
"A parliamentary assembly that thinks only of itself, its interests and is already preparing the 2019 election campaign".
The Bishops offer advice and help to people to change the way of cultivation during the meeting of the Caritas in the Country, but the immediate appeal to all countries is to send food aid. "Our children are malnourished and unable to go to school. In December 2016 half of the population will not have enough food if we do not do something right away. What is currently being done is too little", the Bishops said.
"An appeal that the Church launches to international institutions and to those who agree to accompany the most difficult year for the people of Malawi", concludes the missionary. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/06/2016)


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