Have you ever gone hungry for a day??? Whether deliberately or because of a lack of food? How many times have you gotten passed lunch time and said to someone, “Boy! I’m starving!” How many times have you genuinely heard your stomach growl? Once or twice maybe. Most of the time my stomach growls because I have missed lunch by ten minutes not altogether.
As I have been doing research on Ethiopia I was struck by this statistic…….. In Ethiopia more than five out of ten children under he age of five are chronically malnourished and suffering from growth retardation. That means that five out of ten children are so hungry everyday that their bodies are not growing. I was reading about one persons encounter with severely malnourished babies on his trip to Ethiopia. He said that the children were so chronically hungry that they didn’t even cry any more. They just laid their, mouths open with no sound coming out. They had completely lost all hope. They no longer even expected food to be provided. Another woman recounted watching as a nursing mom put her baby to the breast to feed her and was unable to get any milk. The baby just laid in her arms and wailed. Can you imagine, as a mother, not being able to provide with your body the one thing that your child so desperately needs? I can’t. Having just finished nursing my child and taking it so completely for granted, my heart aches. I am almost physically sick thinking about it. 15% of infants in Ethiopia are born with low birth weight. This low birth weight is closely associated with maternal nutrition. 52% of children in Ethiopia are stunted, 11% suffer from wasting, and 47 % suffer from severe or moderate underweight.
Ethiopia is ranked 170 out of 177 on the United Nations Development Programs Human Poverty Index. Ethiopia’s is one of Africa’s poorest states. 45 % of Ethiopia’s 7.1 million people live below the poverty level. Per-capita income is under USD$100.
I tell you all this, not to make you feel bad as you eat lunch. Or to guilt you into doing anything. Mostly, I am just trying to educate you as I am educating myself. I want to know where my child will be coming from, what his background is and what his story is. And as his future family and friends I want you to know too.
I don’t know what God is calling you to do, but I do know that he is calling all of us to live a sacrificial life. There are so many people in this world with so much less than what we have and I am trying hard to figure out what that means for me. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the lunch, dinner or whatever it is that God is providing for you just be extra thankful for it today. God is good!
Here are some good websites if you are interested in finding out more(I took the liberty of quoting from these articles):
perhaps there are no comments to this powerful post because we don’t know what to say. we are so self focused and really when we are honest about it selfish. i care about the horrible loss of life but not enough to change much about my life. i am glad you care and i am proud that you care and i want to help you do what you are doing re. adoption but what i have to come to terms with is that i am glad to help you but don’t really want to do much myself.
my guess is that most of your readers are similar.
Lord, forgive us and break our hearts with this horrible loss of life. show us what to do and give us the heart to want to do what you show us to do.
dad