Once again, images of starving children and their frantic parents are appearing on the nightly news. About one-third of Niger’s 11.5 million people are facing extreme malnutrition, their crops destroyed by drought and locusts. Many people in rural areas are eating only leaves and grass. Some have left home to seek food, but others are too weak to walk. Approximately 2.5 million people in the neighboring countries of Burkino Faso, Mali, and Mauritania are also at risk.

While the food crisis has been building for many months, relief efforts have been stepped up this summer. In late July the United States announced an additional contribution of $7 million in food and cash, for a total of $13 million this year. The U.N. World Food Program has been supplying emergency feeding centers in towns. Now they have begun efforts to reach people in villages as well. Catholic Relief Services is continuing its emergency response to help some 3.6 million people facing severe food shortages in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Food crisis that affect millions of people are complex, but it’s clear that one primary cause is extreme poverty. The day-to-day struggle for survival prevents poor people from setting aside resources for emergencies. That’s why, when 189 countries agreed to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), global benchmarks of development progress, the first goal identified was to cut hunger and extreme poverty in half by 2015.

In September, world leaders came together in New York to review progress made since the goals were set in 2000. In the United Nation’s assessment “The MDGs can be met by 2015, but only if all involved break with business as usual and dramatically accelerate and scale up action now.”

At the G-8 summit held in Scotland in July, President Bush proposed to double U.S. aid to Africa by 2010. This is one step toward doing our share to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Yet Congress must approve any increase in development assistance, and some of the additional funding was promised for 2009 and 2010, after Bush leaves office. Thus it is important not only to urge the administration to take a leadership role in ending global hunger and poverty, but also to persuade Congress to do so.

This summer, millennium Development Goals legislation was introduced in both the Senate and the House (S. 1315 in the Senate and H. Con. Res. 172 in the House). The legislation asks President Bush to use this year’s G-8 and U.N. Summit to make progress toward the MDGs. It is an important sign of the commitment of members of Congress to adopt policies and allocate funding to fulfill the president’s promises.

People of faith can help end global hunger and poverty by encouraging initiatives to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Please write your members of Congress and urge them to support legislation aimed at achieving these goals. In Niger alone, there are literally millions of reasons to do so.

Sample Letter

Dear Senator _______________________ or Representative ____________________,

I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the Millennium Development Goals Resolution (H. Con. Res. 172 in the House, S. 1315 in the Senate). In a world that produces enough food for everyone, there are nonetheless more than 800 million hungry people. Each year, 10 million children less than five years old die of preventable causes.

The Millennium Development Goals Resolution reaffirms U.S. support for eight attainable goals that were adopted by the United States and 188 other countries in 2000. The first is to cut global hunger and extreme poverty in half by 2015. Both the House and the Senate bills urge the president to use every opportunity to provide leadership and to commit the U.S. share of the resources needed to accomplish this.

Recent polls by the Alliance to End Hunger show that more than 80 percent of Americans support increasing aid to Africa to help reduce hunger, poverty, and disease. The Millennium Development Goals legislation is an important sign of congressional commitment to help people around the world who are struggling to feed their families. I urge you to consider cosponsoring this important bill.

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