Millions face starvation

FOR ten years, GOAL has been assisting impoverished and vulnerable people in Angola, a country which has been utterly devastated by a civil war that began shortly after it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.

Since the end of the civil war in April, large areas of the country have become accessible for the first time in decades and the true extent of the humanitarian crisis in the country has become clear.

A major catastrophe is taking place in Angola, half a million people face starvation and more than a million others are completely dependent on food aid for survival.

In the wider Southern Africa region some 20 million people in seven countries, many of them already weakened by the HIV/AIDS pandemic wreaking havoc throughout the continent, will be facing food shortages, drought and famine within weeks.

Once again GOAL and the other international agencies are responding as best we can but, unless massive funds are poured in, I fear that the world shall shortly be witnessing a disaster of biblical proportions.

I would ask your readers to please support GOAL’s appeal for Africa by donating as much as they can.

John O’Shea,

GOAL,

PO Box 19,

Dun Laoghaire,

Co Dublin