Food Shortage

We are quite conerned about how this affects our family in Ethiopia - Me, Ed, and L's Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, and the girl's older brother. We love them dearly. I have included a link at the bottom of this post for those who are moved to help. We are hoping to find a way to help our family in particular. Once we can find a way to sponsor them... or at least the girl's brother, Getahun... we will need to raise the money to send in monthly.
Read on (written by a man in our agency's adoptive family forum):

"Since we are living and working in Ethiopia we can confirm that things are getting very tough. The government just released June '07-June '08 inflation figures with overall inflation at 55%, food inflation at 78%, and grain/cereals inflation at 132%. The short rains failed (those that come in February - May) which combined with raising world food prices has been the real culprit of the difficult times Ethiopia now faces. The short rains usually provide enough crops that get people through the "hungry season"generally May to August. This is when people are planting and are waitingfor the harvest from the longer rains. Unfortunately, due to the failure of the short rains, and the delay of the longer rains, most of the current harvests are about two months behind. Most families dependent on agriculture will not see a harvest until mid-to-late September at the earliest.

What I have heard in my travels and in meetings is that there is food in most markets, however the prices are so high that people cannot afford to purchase it. This is especially true for the small holder farmer and the very poor, who are most severely affected. The most deceiving part is that the fields are planted and the countryside looks green and beautiful, however these farmers (especially in the south where I recently traveled)will not receive their first crop (green maize) until at least Sept or Oct. This is why people are referring to this as a green famine - beautiful, plenty growing right now, but there is no access to food for a large number of people.

On the ration side - the government and donors are trying to meet food needs for the 4.6 million people at risk, but due to the inadequate food stocks in country for July, they have decided to reduce the normal ration of 15 KG perperson to 10KG per person. It's a tough decision, give some of the people in need a full ration and nothing to the rest, or spread the in-country foodstock among all who need it at a reduced ration. There is a lot of food coming into country in late/July and August and will be available to distribute quickly. All that said, the government is in the process of buying 150,000 tons of wheat to sell at a subsidized rate in 12 urban centers around the country to reduce the food inflation impacts on the urban poor who do not have land and are solely dependent on purchased food to survive. "
http://awop.org/ - African Widows and Orphans Project

http://adoptionadvocates.org/human/human_sponsor_project.php

http://adoptionadvocates.org/human/human_sponsor_ed.php