December 2002

Dear Friends,

The holiday season, with all of its joys, is upon us. Soon we will be celebrating the birthday of Jesus and, as a part of that celebration, sharing gifts with one another. This is a joyous season here as well. The Congolese do not celebrate Thanksgiving, as it is a uniquely American holiday, but they do celebrate Christmas. Their celebrations are with music and gatherings. I imagine that since the United Nations forces are here and include several northern Europeans, it is the reason we saw some artificial Christmas trees and ornaments for sale recently in one of the shops here. We wish that we could say that this would be a joyous time for all, but there will be hunger on that holiday as on any other day for many of the people here.

We want to introduce you to some children and also to the efforts to help them survive malnutrition. In the accompanying photo you see a two-year-old child, Muamba, who has a typically expressionless face. His feet and hands are swollen and he does not look like a stick figure, contrary to the common image of malnutrition. He has kwashiorkor. Malnutrition comes both as marasmus, the stick figure, and as kwashiorkor, swollen. The swelling is a later development of malnutrition. This child is too weak to stand and has a high probability of death.

Malnutrition is all too common in the poorer nations of the world, including Congo. There are many reasons but there is none that can explain away the injustice to this little child. He is innocent. He is a child of God. He is a neighbor of all of us. He deserves to live to celebrate his birthdays as well as that of our Savior.

Although there are stories all the time in the paper about starvation in Africa and we feel helpless to really do anything about all of the causes, we can help this child. He is currently in our nutrition center and is receiving food. He comes from a local village where there are many other children who suffer the same plight. Here the villagers must grow their own food, and this is a constant battle. Farming in the U.S. is big machinery and organization. Our farms are subsidized by our government to insure that we have a cheap food supply. Here, it is hard labor against the same foes, insects, weeds, plant disease, other animals, weather, etc. Here where people suffer from illnesses like malaria that keep them from the field, their children also suffer from a lack of food.

I also include a photograph of local villages harvesting in a peanut field in a collective effort to grow foods to be used to feed these malnourished children. The initiative to do this came from the wives of employees here at IMCK who approached the village women with an idea that they developed together, which resulted in 50 village women working as volunteers to grow and harvest this food. Nancy worked with them and helped to obtain funding for the purchase of some hand tools and seed. The funding was provided through an interesting method of subsidized medicines through the project SANRU, (rural health) in which a percentage of the cost of the medicines is paid by investing it in health or development projects. The labor is that of the people. Peanuts can be used to produce peanut milk that will be a good protein source for these children.

We ask you this holiday season to remember Jesus and his words, "when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat." Please consider celebrating His birthday by giving Him the gift He requested, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."

God's Peace to you and to your families,

Mike and Nancy Haninger

P.S. Contributions to the nutrition center may be sent to: Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (IMCK Community Health - Nutrition Center) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO 320402) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the International Health Ministries Office at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396.