In this season of giving, a sad plight to reflect on. The number of lives affected is staggering, while the money needed is, as shown below, relatively little. In this connection, 'Abdu'l-Bahá stated:
Hence the urgency of spreading knowledge of this divine System!
U.N. stops food aid to over half a million Nepalis
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - The United Nations has been forced to stop feeding over half a million people in Nepal due to a critical funding shortfall caused by the financial downturn, a World Food Programme (WFP) official said on Wednesday.
The U.N. agency says it needs $20 million to continue feeding 600,000 people -- more than a quarter of the total number it was assisting -- in the impoverished Himalayan nation over the next three months. ...
Nepal already has the some of the world's highest rates of child malnutrition, with about 48 percent of children under five considered poor or inadequately fed. "This is essentially a silent emergency," said Hyde [WFP's deputy country representative]. "This is because those who are being impacted the greatest are in some of the most isolated places on earth."
From Reuters AlertNet - access here.The greatest means for prevention [of extreme poeverty] is that whereby the laws of the community will be so framed and enacted that it will not be possible for a few to be millionaires and many destitute. One of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings is the adjustment of means of livelihood in human society.
Hence the urgency of spreading knowledge of this divine System!
A satisfactory solution to the world's present economic crisis lies in a profound change of heart and mind which only religion can produce.
- Bahá'í International Community, Teachings
U.N. stops food aid to over half a million Nepalis
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - The United Nations has been forced to stop feeding over half a million people in Nepal due to a critical funding shortfall caused by the financial downturn, a World Food Programme (WFP) official said on Wednesday.
The U.N. agency says it needs $20 million to continue feeding 600,000 people -- more than a quarter of the total number it was assisting -- in the impoverished Himalayan nation over the next three months. ...
Nepal already has the some of the world's highest rates of child malnutrition, with about 48 percent of children under five considered poor or inadequately fed. "This is essentially a silent emergency," said Hyde [WFP's deputy country representative]. "This is because those who are being impacted the greatest are in some of the most isolated places on earth."
"We must be like the fountain or spring that is continually emptying itself of all that it has and is continually being refilled from an invisible source... [T]his is the secret of right living."
- Shoghi Effendi, Compilation
- Shoghi Effendi, Compilation
From the Bahá'í writings on caring for those in need:
What could be better before God than thinking of the poor? For the poor are beloved by our heavenly Father. When Christ came upon the earth, those who believed in Him and followed Him were the poor and lowly, showing that the poor were near to God. ... [T]he poor are especially beloved of God. Their lives are full of difficulties, their trials continual, their hopes are in God alone. Therefore, you must assist the poor as much as possible, even by sacrifice of yourself. No deed of man is greater before God than helping the poor. ... Each one of you must have great consideration for the poor and render them assistance. Organize in an effort to help them and prevent increase of poverty. The greatest means for prevention is that whereby the laws of the community will be so framed and enacted that it will not be possible for a few to be millionaires and many destitute. One of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings is the adjustment of means of livelihood in human society. Under this adjustment there can be no extremes in human conditions as regards wealth and sustenance. ...
- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, PUP 216
Photo sources are here and here (latter copyright Bahá'í International Community).
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