Utahns fight famine in Africa

A few months back, Garry Flake of Salt Lake City held the horror of famine in his arms. A feather-light child looked up at him, and he tried to think hopeful thoughts.

Today he is back in the child's homeland of Ethiopia, as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begins a second round of food aid to that country. Four million pounds of supplementary foods have been airlifted to Ethiopian villages, after packaging at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City.

"We may not be able to save every child," said Flake, director of the LDS Church's Welfare Services. "But we have a responsibility to do all we can." The LDS Church's response to the 2003 famine in Ethiopia — expected to be worse than that of 1984 — is only an emergency measure that will not solve the country's food shortages, Flake acknowledged. This second phase of relief will reach about 500,000 people, with a focus on pregnant and lactating mothers and their children under 5.

Right now, 13 million people in Ethiopia are "at risk," meaning the adults' consumption is less than 900 calories a day. Infants and children are starving, and their mothers cannot feed them. Working with Project Mercy, an Indiana-based nongovernmental organization with long experience in Ethiopia, and with Catholic Relief Services, the LDS Church is distributing thousands of bags of sustenance.

One kind is called Unimix: a gruel-like blend of corn, soy, sugar and vitamins. For children who are so malnourished that they cannot digest Unimix, there's Atmit, the Ethiopian word for porridge. Atmit is a mix of oat flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt and vitamins that, when added to water and cooking oil, makes a cream soup-like drink.

In March, Flake went to rural Ethiopia to assist with the first phase of relief. "We were at a camp where 2,000 or 3,000 people came in" one day for food, he said. "Mothers would hold their children up, hoping they would attract attention." The most malnourished babies, children and mothers are the first to receive Unimix and Atmit.

The LDS Church has no proselyting missionaries in Ethiopia and fewer than 500 members in the country, according to spokesman Dale Bills. He added that he doesn't expect worries about terrorist attacks on the African nation to affect the relief efforts.

Ethiopia, whose size equals Texas plus California, is 58 percent Christian and 30 percent Muslim, according to the Oxford University Press' 2001 World Christian Encyclopedia. The LDS Church's relief effort has no proselyting component. It is being done "because people are suffering and we can help," Bills said.