Indianapolis, Indiana … The news headlines seem to come at us like an ugly billboard beside a vagrant cemetery. Unemployment is up, retail sales are down, and the value of the world’s stock markets offers little reprieve from the gloom and doom that creates tonight’s lead stories.
As the dismal news floods out across television screens around the world the downturn is affecting nearly everyone in one way or another. Aid programs to third world countries are not exempt from the slump. Contributions are dropping at an alarming rate, staff cuts are affecting most aid groups, and even the aid shipments are dropping while the organizations that support them are trying to keep ahead of the loss of revenue.
Started Near the End of the Year
Scott Gordon, treasurer for the Malawi Project reports the same picture can be seen in the Project’s programs to Africa. "The problems in the market did not seem to affect us until we reached the final weeks of last year, and then it started dropping like a boulder landing in a shallow pond. We have seen an alarming reduction in our revenue that is now causing us to quickly begin to systematically reduce shipments of aid to Africa. It is very sad because the Project worked on a budget of less than $100,000 last year, yet we were able to ship well over $30 million in medical aid to Malawi," concludes Gordon. "This does not count the personnel time in Malawi, or a number of aid programs being carried out in this former British protectorate by Project personnel and agricultural development equipment. This shortfall is even affecting the travel of two of our board members who spend much of their time traveling from place to place telling the story of Malawi to churches, civic groups, corporations and government groups who want to participate in this effort. It seems to us that this problem will influence our work for the next 6 months to a year, or even longer."
Hurting Them Worse Than Us
"The recession is hurting all of us," says Richard Stephens, Chairman of the Board of Directors, "and it is causing us to cut back in a number of areas, but these are not life threatening. The real tragedy will come for a child in a Malawi village who has malaria, a patient in the hospital who has AIDS, a farmer who cannot raise enough grain for his family. For these people the downturn in our country is life threatening. They will die alone and unseen, while our media focuses our pain on the downturn, and we watch the stock market bump along toward an eventual recovery."