Responding to World Hunger

Your article “CNN Brings the Famine Story Out of Africa,” reviewing CNN’s coverage of the famine in Africa (June 22), and your editorial “The Disaster of Not Responding” (June 26), should be commended for the timely treatment of a tragic subject.

Having just returned from Angola and witnessing firsthand the devastation and massive hunger plaguing that part of the world, I can attest that the suffering of these people is not going unanswered.

International Medical Corps, a nonprofit, non-sectarian, nonpolitical Los Angeles-based relief organization, responded on June 13 by initiating a major airlift of food and emergency supplies to southeast Angola. As I write this, cargo planes are carrying 4 million pounds of food, medicines, seeds and agricultural tools to Angola. These supplies will help feed and heal 115,000 people on the brink of starvation.

Under the United Nations Special Relief Program for Angola, and funded by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, IMC will deliver up to 60 tons of food and supplies each day for an estimated 45 days.

We agree that a renewed effort in response to potential starvation and continued malnutrition is needed. There is no time to languish in a state of “compassion fatigue,” no time to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of these disasters. There is time only to respond swiftly and urgently to the threat of widespread famine in Africa.

NANCY AOSSEY, President and CEO, International Medical Corps, Los Angeles