MISEREOR Lenten Campaign 2013

A QUESTION

An everyday question, this is what Jesus asks his friends. Thousands of men, women and children have been forming a crowd around him for hours, eager to listen to him. Now they are hungry.

How many loaves do you have?

We know the story of the multiplication of the loaves very well. It is one of the fundamental texts of Christianity, and of MISEREOR’s work. A simple question lifts people out of their usual routine and forces them to act.

Being hungry – every human being knows this feeling. A vital reflex. Here in Europe, when we speak of being hungry, most of the time we are referring to a slightly hollow feeling in the stomach that tells us it’s time for a meal. Then we go to the fridge and get something to eat.

There are one billion people who can’t just get something to eat, because they have neither a fridge nor the money to buy the most basic food. They are starving. They are not just hungry for a moment or two; they suffer hunger for days or even months. Seventy per cent of those who go hungry around the world are women and children. The proportion of people afflicted by hunger is rising once again. The absolute number of people going hungry today – one billion – is higher than it was 40 years ago.

This is a scandal, bearing in mind that there is enough food for all and that despite the rising world population no one would have to starve. The fight against hunger remains one of the key issues to which MISEREOR is passionately committed alongside the poor in numerous projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and at the political level.

The artist Ejti Stih contrasts this deprivation with God’s promise of abundant life, from which no one is excluded any longer.

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