Comments on: Global Food Crisis: Is it Global? Is it a Crisis?

By: Karen Wright

Karen Wright — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:14:54 +0000

Compassion’s AIDS Initiative provides supplemental food assistance for individuals infected with AIDS. Our goal is to assist families, but not serve as their main source of support. The woman I met was a single mom and her family’s only source of support. When she fell ill the family temporarily lost their primary source of income and, therefore, food. What I do not know of her story is how long she was in the hospital and whether the church or the child’s Compassion project was notified. While our project workers conduct home visits, it is possible her hospitalization occurred between visits and no one was notified.

By: Denise

Denise — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:33:41 +0000

Thank you for the info. I was thinking these women were enrolled in the program through their children and I know some people do receive food and medicine.
Just a reminder, our monthly support goes to our sponsored child and if we can afford to send part or all of the “FAMILY GIFT” this will help the family buy food and needs for the rest of the family. I usually spread the gift out in three payments and try to get it to them during some of the “hunger months” which are listed under project and community information online in “my account” and also during the planting months if I think they can plant a garden.

By: Chris Giovagnoni

Chris Giovagnoni — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:11:16 +0000

Denise, This page on compassion.com explains how the AIDS Initiative works.

By: Denise

Denise — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:31:14 +0000

If these women were ALL beneficiaries of the Compassion Aids Iniative, why did they not have any food? I’m not sure I understand how much help they get from this program.

By: Carolyn F

Carolyn F — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:35:36 +0000

It makes my heart ache. My sponsored child is in Tanzania. Thank goodness for Compassion in these children’s lives, but is it enough?

By: Miriam

Miriam — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:05:02 +0000

The real question is, if they needed help, would they tell you?

People in the developing world have a different idea of sustainable than we do. Personally, I don’t count “We have money now that we sold our daughter” or “We can’t buy anything else but food,” as sustainable. These are from people in a developing countries that are not amoung the poorest (and therefore not countries that Compassion works in).

There are many people who would not ask for help for the same reason those four women were reluctant to share their need even though they were destitute. So I think action is required even before people get malnutrition.

By: Lisa Miles

Lisa Miles — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:59:24 +0000

We’re on the cusp of something that is both global and a crisis.

2008 brought massive crop loss — over three million acres of corn and soybeans were wiped out in the U.S. And this is at a time when corn prices were already soaring. Australia’s wheat crop was lost to drought. Myanmar’s rice crop was lost to the cyclone.

No crops = a shrinking supply of food and massively higher prices for what is available. How can the poor manage this when in some regions 80% of their income already goes toward food? When food prices eat up 100% of their income, how do they then afford clothing, shelter, education, healthcare — what if someone in their family falls ill?

I read something today that scared the daylights out of me. Australia, which historically experiences drought every 20-25 years, is now experiencing crop-destroying drought every two years. Their minister of agriculture said that recent reports on climate change in that country read like a “disaster novel.” If other regions follow suit, we are in for big, big trouble with our world’s food supply.

I think this is a storm that those in developed countries can weather — but third world countries and the poor…

By: Beth Ingersoll

Beth Ingersoll — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:43:28 +0000

That’s just awful…