Southern Baptists are helping families in southern Ethiopia whose homes, livestock and food supplies were destroyed in late April by wildfires that raged across two drought-stricken regions of the North African country.
While news media have been reporting on the hunger crisis in Ethiopia — which has claimed hundreds of children’s lives and threatens thousands more — the situation has become even more desperate in the Ethiopian regions ravaged by wildfires, reported Abraham Shepherd, a Southern Baptist who leads relief and development efforts in that part of the world on behalf of Baptist Global Response (BGR), a Southern Baptist humanitarian organization.
A lack of spring rain already had destroyed crops, but the drought also left vegetation dry and vulnerable to wildfire.
When the inevitable flames raced across the countryside and into villages, entire families found themselves facing the real possibility of starvation, Shepherd said.
Southern Baptists have released more than $37,000 in disaster relief funds to help those families rebuild their livelihoods and stave off a hunger crisis that already was bad enough.
Working through a local Ethiopian humanitarian group, BGR will help rebuild mud-and-thatch houses, replace livestock and provide a supply of grain and cooking oil to feed 56 families until their summer harvest can be taken in, Shepherd said.
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