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Christians are "bringing our leaders together and extending the love of Christ to the nation," Gache said. "We are going to affected areas to minister to them physically and spiritually with the gospel of peace." The fellowship has also hosted Christian medical and ministry teams from Nairobi.

Tragically, on the Monday after Palm Sunday, one such team effort took a disastrous turn. Fourteen Kenyan leaders, including Anglican bishop William Waqo Boru and six members of Kenya's parliament, died in a fiery plane crash in Marsabit.

Tim Sanders, East Africa regional manager for the Church Missionary Society, said in published remarks that Waqo, a convert from Islam, had "a tremendous heart for people of the north."

Experts believe that regional and global politics drive up the cost of food aid and slow the delivery process. Christopher B. Barrett, Cornell University professor and co-author of Food Aid After 50 Years, told CT that it takes too long (a median of 136 days) from the moment a decision is made to send food until its arrival in a needy nation. In addition, shipping, storage, and administrative costs eat up at least 50 cents of each $1 of food aid.

International food aid is complex, controversial, and hard to change. Last year, the Bush administration supported reform that would allow up to 25 percent of federal food aid to be spent buying local food from local markets nearest to the needy.

But Congress, as well as agribusiness, the shipping industry, and top charities, opposed the Bush reform. "Local cash purchase is not a magic bullet," said Robert Zachritz, senior policy analyst for World Vision. He said purchase of local food typically works best for most dire food emergencies. On top of that, he believes a fixed percentage figure reduces flexibility in programs. Other experts, including Barrett, strongly support local purchase.

Many international aid agencies typically buy and distribute local food in famine intervention. But large purchases of local food in destitute areas can have harmful side effects. It can drive up local grain prices, putting food out of reach for the working poor. Local food purchases can also be subject to local bribes and corruption.

Zachritz said Washington policy-makers should steer more food aid into long-term projects to make the region more famine-resistant, with better management of crops and livestock. He said the HIV pandemic is one reason why drought-stricken rural families are dying. "You can't farm if you're sick," he said. He wants to link U.S. food aid with President Bush's emergency HIV/AIDS program in Africa.

Tufts University's Patrick Webb endorses the U.N. Millennium Development Goals as a step toward a long-term solution. These goals set global targets for reducing hunger, poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality, child mortality, and aids, along with improving maternal health and local environments. The goals and targets help local leaders set annual spending priorities.

Fair trade is also important in fighting famine. Jon Singletary, a Baylor University professor and relief expert, said Africans must have better access to global markets to survive without constant outside help.

Western Christians play key roles in partnering with governments and secular groups to break the cycle of crisis. Singletary said Christian advocacy brings moral clarity to human tragedy.

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June 2006, Vol. 50, No. 6