ANGLICAN-INFORMATION sends Christmas greetings to our readers and best wishes for the New Year. We hope to have rather better news for you but will continue to report as we receive news to the best of our ability.

Two items of interest and indicators of needs for the coming year are:

MALAWI: Malnutrition still a threat reports Reuters 18th December 23, 2007

‘LILONGWE, - Despite two years of bumper harvests, malnutrition, partly a consequence of Malawi's famine in 2005, still lingers. "The scale of the malnutrition problem in Malawi is clearly very large and, given its consequences for economic development and child survival, calls for immediate and large-scale action," said Aida Girma, UNICEF Resident Representative.

"Micronutrient deficiencies, which are often referred to as hidden hunger, are also very high." Malnutrition is characterised by key indictors, such as the number of underweight children and levels of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies: stunting levels were at 46 percent, 19 percent of children up to 59 months were underweight, and wasting was 4 percent, the UN Children's Fund representative added.

We have started to see improvements in the food security situation in Malawi in the past two years [but] malnutrition is still a challenge," UNICEF's Nutrition Officer, Stanley Chitekwe, told IRIN.

He said malnutrition was caused by three underlying causes: the first, household food security, had shown improvement; the other two - care for children and women, and the availability of health services - were still inadequate.

"Malawi is heading in the right direction by meeting one of the three requisites for nutrition," he commented, but addressing the other issues would "require more investment in building capacity to improve care practices and health seeking behaviours", because "there is still more work required in promoting diversified crops rich in vitamins and nutrients, and in food processing and preservation."

HIV/AIDS also "undermines nutrition improvements by directly causing ill-health and eroding capacity at various levels - family and institutions - to care, produce food and provide services," Chitekwe added.

‘Most are barely surviving on subsistence farming'
My African Diary, by Richard Hawley
The Observer, Sunday December 23 2007

Accessed on: www. guardian .co.uk/business/2007/dec/23/9

This diary is worth reading as it also covers Kenya and Mozambique and reports from a travellers’ point of view.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION observes that: Climatic change, drought, floods and consequent malnutrition do not recognize national boundaries. One of the principal agents for organized help and local access in Central Africa is the Church, by which we mean all denominations. It is to be hoped that the struggles of past years within ecclesiastical structures may be resolved in this New Year in order that the Church may refocus on its priorities.

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