U.S. must act to slow famine

If adopted, severe budgets cuts proposed by President Donald Trump won’t be felt only in the United States. Fewer dollars for the State Department and the United Nations, which runs agencies such as UNICEF and the World Food Program, would come just as famine is reaching a crisis point in parts of Africa. Children, once again, face death by starvation. A condition, we might add, that can be prevented with the proper resources.

Now is hardly the time to reduce food resources to the most needy people in the world. The Guardian newspaper reports that, “Global hunger levels are at their highest for decades … with 70 million people in need of food aid, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a U.S.based agency.” Famine has been declared in two areas of South Sudan, the first to be declared in more than six years, with the countries of Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia also at risk.

The cuts to food program could not come at a worse time, with the United Nations sounding the alarm about the coming humanitarian crisis, perhaps the worst since the end of World War II. First, there are two years of drought and failed rains across much of Africa. Add to that the years of conflict in the region, stressing the people and reducing the supply of food. Much of this disaster is man-made.

In Yemen, for example, the main port of Hodeidah faces attack — that’s where food relief for 17 million hungry people comes through. Closing off the port would disrupt food relief at a time when millions are at risk. The United States is backing a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, and it’s those forces that will lead the attack (unless, as is unlikely, the U.S. tells its allies to back off ).

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times has written often on the ongoing crisis in Africa. Just last month, Kristof quoted Stephen O’Brien, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief: “We are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the United Nations. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death.”

Kristof then wrote, “How is Trump responding to this crisis? By slashing humanitarian aid, increasing the risk that people starve in the four countries — Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria. The result is a perfect storm: Millions of children tumbling toward famine just as America abdicates leadership and cuts assistance.”

As he pointed out later in the column, “In the United States, humanitarian aid has been a bipartisan tradition, and the champion among recent presidents was George W. Bush, who started programs to fight AIDS and malaria that saved millions of lives. Bush and other presidents recognized that the reasons to help involve not only our values, but also our interests.”

Citizens can push back against these budget cuts. Just as Americans are protesting the slashing of arts funding, money for Meals on Wheels, housing programs and other efforts that aid the vulnerable, we must tell President Trump that U.S. leadership in the world must be about more than the military. After all, despite our claims that the U.S. has the world’s biggest heart, the truth is that this nation contributes less than one-fifth of 1 percent of our national income to foreign aid. That’s about half the proportion of other donor nations on average.

Yet what we know from experience is that aid to people works. Kristof, again: “Humanitarian aid is one of the world’s great success stories, for the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped by half since 1990, and more than 120 million children’s lives have been saved in that period.”

The globe, united, has been winning the war on extreme poverty, a success story of which too many people are unaware. Now, we could be losing ground. Citizen outrage can impact budget negotiations so that the cutbacks are less extreme. We can also speak out against the fighting in Yemen and urge the United States to rein in its allies.

Individually, people can contribute to the agencies whose private relief efforts will relieve hunger in the areas that are suffering. CharityWatch.org has a list of top-rated charities on its website — Africare, the American Refugee Committee, Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Committee all receive an A-plus, meaning they spend at least 75 percent of their budgets on programs and services, and no more than $25 to raise $100.

The crisis is growing. Before millions die, the world — and that includes the United States — must act.