Diocese of Grahamstown

HOPE AFRICA

EASTERN CAPE

Church’s response to the food crisis

Across the world, people are facing the challenges of unprecedented increases in food prices that ultimately have a direct impact on a household’s quality of life. The poor are hardest hit by this unfortunate phenomenon. While the leaders of this world are called upon to address the matter we in civil society and communities of faith need to explore potential programme that will seek to address the hardships for the poorest in our society, while also advocating on behalf of the poor with our government and the corporate sector. As a Church we should be ready to galvanise all our energies and recourses and attempt to get ourselves and our communities out of this quagmire. The church has the ability to provide a progressive response that will benefit not only its members but the community at large.

We therefore request the Bishop and the Diocese to consider the following:

Encourage and motivate parishes to use their land to plant vegetables to feed the elderly and poor in the parish.
Develop programmes that educate parishioners of the benefits of creating home gardens.
Create enhanced awareness campaigns within our parishes on responsible stewardship of the environment, including energy savings and global warming.
Mandate clergy to engage local agricultural officers to teach their congregations about good agricultural practises to ensure good crops.
Mobilise resources to share with the community, through sustainable livelihood programmes.

HOPE Africa believes that it is important for the church to be a catalyst in social development, advocating improved standards of living for all God’s people, especially those trapped in poverty. In this area of our mission we achieve optimal results when embarking on programmes in partnership with other civil society organisations, business and government.

April 2008