Mission groups strain to feed the hungry in drought-stricken Africa

Relief organizations in eastern Africa are grappling with increasing humanitarian needs as some countries continue to struggle with the worst drought in decades.

Warmer El Niño weather conditions have left stark effects across some southern and eastern African countries. The drought has affected about 36 million people, with 1 million children already experiencing severe acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF.

In Malawi, Jeff and Eleanor Du Plessis, field leaders of Operation Mobilization International, see these effects first-hand. The mission group first arrived in Malawi in 2005 and settled among the predominantly Muslim Yao community. Beyond discipleship training and church planting, the group runs a school for orphaned and vulnerable children, caters for the elderly, and offers agricultural training in the local community.

“We work with the poorest of the poor,” Eleanor Du Plessis said.

Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Malawi faced even more difficulties when the drought struck. The output of maize—the country’s staple crop—in the 2015 harvest declined by 30 percent from the previous harvest. The Du Plessises started to feed the children even more at school, provide more food for the elderly, and pay local employees in maize. But the mission group faces limitations.

“What makes it more difficult for us is more people knocking on our doors asking for work in order to get money or maize, and the maize is running out,” Eleanor Du Plessis said. “Our harvest is also influenced.”

In Ethiopia, more than 10 million people are in need of emergency food assistance. Even before the drought, more than 7 million people battled with food insecurity in Ethiopia. World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid group, responded by setting up the Ethiopia Food Crisis Response, which has reached 677,000 people with health, food, and water needs.

“The drought has created a hunger crisis on top of the development issues World Vision is working with communities to solve already,” said Amy Parodi, the nonprofit’s public relations director.

Caritas Ethiopia, the local branch of a Catholic emergency response nonprofit headquartered in Rome, is also struggling to meet the health and food needs of more people. The mission group planned an emergency project in response to the drought, which garnered pledges of more than 2.8 million euros from donors. But the group only received 1 million and worked to refine its proposal to the new budget.

“We don’t have to sit waiting for money to come because, from the very nature of emergencies, you have to do something with what’s in hand rather than waiting,” said Gabriel Gesese, the food security leader in Ethiopia.

Under the new proposal, Gesese explained, they will reach out to those in critical conditions across the country in more than 33 districts by providing seeds to farmers who lost their crops, restocking livestock, and digging steep wells for emergency water supplies for both people and cattle. The project is expected to assist more than 250,000 people.

“It’s a great challenge,” Gesese said. “We’re in a dilemma.”