Latest News #230 - Malawi
January 29, 2003

UBS fellowship asked to pray
for Malawi

As well as homes, the floods which hit Malawi during the first week of January 2003 also washed away crops, leaving seven people dead and 15,000 homeless and the prospects for the harvest considerably reduced. Malawi. Photo: Bible Society of Malawi (MAI03DJ-2)

BLANTYRE, Malawi — Following this month’s widespread flooding in Malawi, where since last year five million people have been experiencing a severe famine, the Bible Society of Malawi has called on the UBS fellowship to pray that God will intervene in the situation.

During the first week of January, floods washed away crops and homes leaving seven people dead and 15,000 homeless and the prospects for the harvest considerably reduced. Heavy rains caused four rivers in the south to burst their banks and a bridge to collapse on the railway to the Mozambican port of Nacala, along which much of Malawi's imported food relief is carried. Sections of the road connecting Blantyre to the administrative capital, Lilongwe, and the road north from Lilongwe were also cut. Many crops have either been washed away or are waterlogged.

On January 10, after visiting affected areas, Malawi’s president, Dr Bakili Muluzi, officially declared six regions to be disaster areas and appealed for international food and non-food aid. He also urged Malawians to pray for their country.

Large hectares of crops were washed away in the floods which hit Malawi during the first week of January 2003, leaving seven people dead and 15,000 homeless and the prospects for the harvest considerably reduced. Malawi. Photo: Bible Society of Malawi (MAI03DJ-3)

Kamwana Muyaya, Marketing Manager of the Bible Society of Malawi, said that the floods had worsened the plight in which the country already found itself. He added that people were still dying from last year's drought and that few would be able to afford to buy what little maize was still available.

“The international community is distributing food aid but obviously it is not adequate,” he said. “The majority of people are subsistence farmers and there is nothing for them to sell in order to buy other commodities.”

He said that the difficulties the Bible Society’s Scripture distribution partners encountered in selling Scriptures last year because of the drought were now likely to be repeated this year because of the floods.

“We call upon the entire UBS fellowship to join with us in prayer for God to intervene in the situation and give Malawi the right amount of rain for crops and livelihoods,” he said.