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Lutherans Combat Malaria

According to the World Health Organization, in 2008 there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths—mostly among African children. In Africa, a child dies every 45 seconds of malaria, and the disease accounts for 20 percent of all childhood deaths there.

April 25 is World Malaria Day.  On this day devoted to addressing one of the most widespread fatal diseases of our time, we know that bed nets are one of several important tools to combat this disease.  Bed nets are important and the most publicized form of prevention, but that’s one of many aspects of combating this far-reaching epidemic.  It’s also about education, safe drinking water, and a global cooperation of people and organizations working together with affected communities to halt this disease.

The ELCA is part of an inter-Lutheran effort to combat malaria: the Lutheran Malaria Initiative.  As this work gains momentum, consider what you can do to support it.  Learn how youth are getting involved.

Like hunger, whether you understand malaria on an academic level or by virtue of experience with the disease, a communal gut reaction is needed to the widespread devastation this epidemic continues to cause.  As one of the body of Christ suffers, so do we all.  As one of the body of Christ has AIDS or malaria, so do we all. 

Those who have the ability to act have the responsibility to act.  Whether malaria, AIDS, hunger, and countless other justice issues in the world that disproportionately affect people living in poverty, let us step forward boldly as a public church whose witness is visible in endless acts of human connection and meaningful systems of change.

-Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

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Lipi’s Chickens

A woman in Cambodia raises chickens through a project supported by ELCA World Hunger. Credit: Rachel Cook/LWF.

This Easter season, as we give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and a chance to be born anew, let us recommit ourselves to God’s call for us to love and serve our neighbors both near and far.

One of our global neighbors whom we support through ELCA World Hunger lives in Bangladesh.  And because of a custom many of us take part in at Easter—painting Easter eggs—I am reminded of her story, which will appear in the summer issue of LifeLines newsletter due out in late April. Here’s a sneak preview:

“Lipi Bergum lives in Bangladesh in a small hut with her husband, two children and elderly mother-in-law. With no land of their own, Lipi’s family used to get by on what meager pay her husband—a day laborer for nearby farmers—could earn. They often struggled, especially in the rainy season.

During the rainy season in northwest Bangladesh, when rice fields traditionally lie dormant, there is no work or wages for farm laborers. Day laborers and their families are often reduced to begging or worse—going hungry. For a long time, that was the reality Lipi and her family faced.

That changed when Lipi joined a local Farmer Field School run by RDRS, a long-established rural development organization supported by ELCA World Hunger.  RDRS understood her situation and gave her some ideas. Before long, with the help of a microloan, Lipi built a little shed on the family’s homestead and began raising a flock of 200 chickens to generate income.”

Lipi’s chickens yield countless eggs, and because of these chickens Lipi and her family no longer go hungry during the rainy season.  When you or the children in your life collected those Easter baskets, reflect on the importance of eggs not only for nourishment but for the life-saving difference chickens and eggs make in other parts of the world.

If you didn’t get around to buying that special Easter gift for someone you care about, consider giving 10 chicks for $10 or another truly meaningful gift and putting a special gift notice in someone’s post-Easter card or upcoming birthday or special-occasion card.

Hallelujah!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed, hallelujah!

-Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

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