The war in Ukraine has had ripple effects around the world. Ukraine being as one of the main sources of wheat and other foods, countries throughout Africa in particular are finding it difficult to replace those supplies from other sources. When you add in the worst drought in four decades, increasing costs for fuel and fertilizer, the effects on ordinary people are simply devastating., perhaps nowhere more so than in Somalia.

The New York Times has a disturbing article on the Somali situation:

The most devastating crisis is unfolding in Somalia, where about seven million of the country’s estimated 16 million people face acute food shortages. Since January, at least 448 children have died from severe acute malnutrition, according to a database managed by UNICEF.

With the rivers low, wells dry and their livestock dead, families are walking or getting on buses and donkeys — sometimes for hundreds of miles — just to find food, water or emergency medical care.

Parents flow into the capital, Mogadishu, bringing their malnourished children to health facilities like Benadir Hospital, one of few in the country with a pediatric stabilization unit. The beds on a recent visit were packed with bony babies with scaly skin and hair that had lost its natural color because of malnutrition. Many of the children were also sick with illnesses like measles and were being fed through nasal tubes and needed oxygen to breathe.

NY Times 6/11/2022. Behind a paywall, but readable here.

Our desire as a family is to glorify God by caring for his creation in a way that allows us to eat healthily, make a living and bless other people. 

…We set ourselves a simple goal: to grow all our own food and eat healthily. 

As with many others in many different parts of the world, their effort seeks to integrate all of the different parts of God’s creation:

We began with activities such as land preparation, construction of the chicken house, planting trees and digging fishponds. We read many articles and books and visited other people’s farms to learn from them. We looked for market opportunities and started to harvest eggs, vegetables, fish, chicken and rice.

‘Our farm of three hectares is now carefully planned for integrated farming. One third is for rice and the rest is for fish ponds, chickens, ducks, fruit trees, bamboo for construction, corn, beans, herbs, medicinal plants and vegetables. We raise bees in the fruit orchard for organic honey, pest control and pollination. 

‘We use farming practices that work with nature, not against it. We use compost and animal manure to fertilise the land. Pests and diseases are kept under control by insects and birds that are attracted to our farm by the trees, ponds and permanent vegetation.  

In the intervening years, they have influenced their neighbors and the larger Christian community around them. Read more here.