In January I was on a mission to Southern Africa and visited with a 70 year old Zambian woman far out in the countryside. She was rather frail and losing her sight, but she was still pretty clearly in charge of her household. What struck me most was her overwhelming exhaustion. The reason for it was clear enough -- all around the hut where she lived there were children. I couldn't count them all, but there were far more than a dozen. They were her grandchildren, her nieces and nephews, the children of neighbors -- all of them orphaned by AIDS.
A generation has been lost to AIDS in that Zambian village and a worn and aging woman left alone with all those many children. That Zambian grandmother and her children are among 15 million people in southern Africa living on the brink of starvation. They are at the epicenter of a potential famine, largely helpless to do much about it.
Thanks to the tremendous generosity of the American people and the dedication of people like Andrew Natsios and his team at USAID, a huge international effort is holding famine at bay in southern Africa -- at least for now. That is the good news. President Bush recently announced a $200 million commitment to a famine fund for the Fiscal Year 2004 budget and there are plans to work with other members of the G8 on an initiative against famine when France hosts the G8 this summer. Meanwhile, the EU and its member states have also sent a signal, boosting contributions to WFP for food aid by $150 million last year. That is more good news. Finally, this Congress has had the compassion to vote a supplemental appropriation for $275 million to help aid agencies cope with food crises stretching through much of the African continent. That is also very good news. The bad news is that all this will not be enough.
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