“He will deliver those whose hope is in the LORD’s unfailing love from death and keep them alive in famine.”
[Oct.18. 2021] In May 2020, World Vision (President: Myung-Hwan Cho) published a report titled: “Price-shocks: how Covid-19 is triggering a pandemic of child malnutrition and how we can stop it”. World Vision is an international relief and development non-government organization. According to the report, global food prices reached the highest levels in a decade and they continue to rise.
Data in the report shows that some 161 million more people went hungry in 2020, a 25 percent increase in 2019 figures, and the world is facing a pandemic of child malnutrition due to food price inflation, decreased incomes, and collapsed food supply chains.
Most worryingly, more than 41 million people are suffering emergency levels of food insecurity or famine-like conditions across Africa and the Middle East.
In addition, the number of deaths due to malnutrition was higher than the number of deaths due to COVID-19. While 7 people die every minute from COVID-19, 11 people die every minute from malnutrition.
The report also revealed the results of a research of the cost of 10 common items in 31 countries and analyzed it with the working hours versus food prices in each country. Americans work an average of an hour to cover the cost of buying 10 items, compared to 3 days in Syria and 8 days in South Sudan. Bananas cost 58% of South Sudan’s daily wage and 61 % in Chad.
The report found that between February last year and July this year food prices rose 2.9% in the UK, 3,6% in the US, and 4.8% in Japan and Canada on average while in Myanmar 54%, in Lebanon 48%, Mozambique 38.3%, and Syria 29%, rose.
Food price inflation and lower incomes due to COVID-19 have made it difficult for 3 billion people around the world to access nutritious food.
“The Pandemic has led to job losses and lower incomes and this is forcing millions of families to skip meals. This may lead to what could be the worst hunger crisis in generations,” said World Vision International’s Global Humanitarian Director, Justin Byworth, stressing the urgency of resolving the food crisis.
Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been establishing and implementing October 16 every year as ‘World Food Day’ since 1979. FAO, one of the UN specialized agencies, aims to improve the production and distribution of food and agricultural products in various countries around the world and to guide land and breed improvement technologies. (Source: Korean Christian News).
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. (Psalms 33:18-19)
Dear God, please save all nations where people are dying from malnutrition due to food price inflation and lower incomes from COVID-19. May those in distress hope in the LORD’s unfailing love, who delivers them from death and keeps them alive in famine. May the international organizations take care of countries in the crisis of hunger and may the hungry experience the abundant love of the LORD who came to give life through the helping hands.
Prayer 24·365
prayer@prayer24365.org
