The Famine in Malawi:
What Our Sisters Face When They Return Home

(from an email from Bishop Christopher Boyle, Northern Malawi)

Greetings. This is to keep you informed:

A few days ago the State President Dr. Bakili Muluzi made a public announcement on the radio that he had declared Malawi to be a national disaster due to famine. The number affected is 70% of the population. Many people are feeding on wild roots which make them sick and some die.

About fifteen districts have been affected by floods and thousands of hectares of land where crops were grown have been washed away. The Christian Service Committee has written to all the churches in Malawi to gather information about the famine so that funding can be sought from abroad. Last week I returned from Karonga where I heard people crying with hunger who said they hadn't eaten for twenty-one days and asked me to provide them with food urgently. I have scraped together $1400 (about £1000) to send maize to Karonga this week. I have visited personally Mhuju, Usisya, Nkhata Bay, Chilambwe, Likoma, and Chombe, all in the last two weeks in the course of my pastoral work. Everywhere the responses were the same — food is critically short, and lives are threatened.

In the city of Mzuzu, people queue for maize husks as early as 5:00 a.m. at the Grain & Milling Company. The Government is buying maize from Tanzania and South Africa, but it is not enough and it is not easy to reach the people in the villages because of bad roads.

Two years ago we experienced a similar situation and the donors from overseas came to our rescue and enabled us to distribute maize. I am seeking to raise $20,000 to assist the villagers around various parishes in the Diocese in consultaiton with the chiefs, village headmen so there is fairness of distribution and the hardest are treated first. The situation is critical.

Ten minutes ago I was given a first hand report that in Nkhota Kota three bodies had to be buried at one grave because none of the mourners had the strength to dig more than one grave. Another family from the south was poisoned to death because of jealousy. They were the only family remaining with food in the village. This gives you something of the depth and the gravity of the situation. Like St. Paul I feel at my wit’s end, but not defeated. Please pray for us.

With all good wishes.
+Christopher Boyle, Northern Malawi