East Africa Needs Our Prayers

The WOW organization has been staying close to women in East Africa and is concerned to find that the struggles in that part of the world might be going from bad to worse soon. Between the first locust attack on farmlands in many provinces, excessive rains and flooding that recently destroyed villages, and now quarantine for COVID-19 they have lost their crops and can’t work to get money for food that they need.

Quarantine in Africa means starvation for millions. Many buy food each day after they get paid for their day’s work. But, if the virus spreads the hospitals are in no way equipped to handle the pandemic. They are in a very bad situation. Prayer is the best option they’ve got.

COVID-19 Situation in East Africa

There are six countries making up the East Africa Community namely: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic is a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. wikipedia.org.  

With the known mode of transmission, many countries made decisions to confine their citizens for protection against COVID-19.  The East African countries were equally affected.  As it is now, Kenya is having the highest number of people infected with COVID-19 among the East African Countries.  Kenya recorded its first case of the coronavirus outbreak on March 13, 2020.  COVID-19 has changed the way Kenyans live, love and express that love; COVID-19 has shaped social behavior across the country.  Today April 9, 2020, all the major newspapers had a similar heading “We are standing together with Kenyans”, media houses united on COVID-19 issue.  By March 20th, all schools in Kenya had closed, shortly after that, there was curfew between 7:00pm to 5:00am.  While the curfew was on, the President announced a lockdown of Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 6th.  We are all hopeful that these measures will help Kenyans avert contracting of COVID-19 in large number.  A short while ago, the Minister for health has also announced that anybody walking out of their houses, must wear face masks.  The Kenyan Government has allowed major tailoring institutions to produce large numbers of face masks made from cloth material.  The masks can be washed and re used, the large numbers of masks will serve many Kenyans, some of the needy Kenyans will be given masks for free.   So far, there are 184 people infected with COVID-19 in Kenya. (107 males and 77 females) 3 are below 15 years, 49 are between ages 15-29; 119 are between ages 30-59 and 13 are above 60 years.

Tanzania reported their first COVID-19 on March 16th, 2020 and currently they have 25 people infected.  Tanzania, however, have their citizens go to work as normal without any restrictions, lockdowns or curfews.  Burundi announced their first two COVID-19 cases on March 26th, currently they have 25 cases.   Rwanda announced their first COVID-19 case on March 14th, 2020, currently there are 104 people infected by COVID-19 cases.  The government of Rwanda has taken several measures to curb the spread of this pandemic including total lockdown for 21 days. South Sudan announced the first COVID-19 case today April 9, 2020.  Uganda confirmed their first case of COVID-19 on March 21st and immediately implemented the measures to protect the citizens.  Total lockdown is what Ugandans are going through.  No work, no school and no business as usual.

What is common with all the cases in East Africa is that the majority of COVID-19 cases travelled from outside their countries.  What is also common is that there are community infections going on within the mentioned countries after the first few cases were identified.  Culturally, there are Africans who seal the business deal by shaking hands. This is common among the groups who sell livestock in the open local markets for a living.  Due to COVID-19, some communities have innovatively started hitting the walking sticks as a sign of shaking hands in the process of agreeing on the price of the cattle to be sold.  Many open markets have been closed, making it difficult for the small businesspeople to survive and creating a lot of outcry.  Schools have also been closed.  Families are spending a lot of time in the house which is a very unusual experience.  It is emerging now that in some cases, there is increased gender violence in the homes.

More Trials Might Be Coming!

Jessica Corbett, who writes for Common Dreams reported on April 10, 2020. “While much of the world focuses on the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 1.6 million people across the globe, East Africa is battling the worst invasion of desert locusts in decades—a monthslong “scourge of biblical proportions” that experts warn could get worse with a larger second wave already arriving in parts of the region.”

So many crops have already been lost to the first invasion of these locusts. Growers have reported to WOW that they are waiting for the second planting season of the year, which starts in about 6 weeks. Another invasion of locusts will make planting impossible again. It seems that food shortages will be imminent if crops fail. Additionally, vital sources of income will disappear with this next crisis.

WOW urges the world to pray each day, morning and night, for East Africa and for all those being sorely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a time when the world must band together in faith. We must share everything we can, but especially our faith.

Love in the Time of Corona

In these challenging times, when our lives and liberties hang ever more in the balance, there is really only one thing upon which we should be focusing: Love. Love for our families – and most particularly our children – is the thing which will pull us through. With that being the case, one might expect the very first priority to be the preservation of life, with the immediate closure of non-essential medical facilities, like abortion clinics.

As of 30th March, 2020, a quarter of UK abortion facilities were closed because of the Coronavirus, considerably diminishing the estimated 44,000 abortions which would, otherwise, have taken place over the next thirteen weeks https://mashable.com/article/coronavirus-abortion-access-uk/?europe=true

Forty-four thousand – forty-four THOUSAND terminated pregnancies – in thirteen weeks? Are the people in the United Kingdom even aware that such a vast number of abortions are taking place, with 98% of them being conducted at the taxpayers’ expense? One doubts it: the number of abortions in the UK are well-hidden from the British people and for good reason – there would surely be public outcry if citizens were aware of the enormous number of babies killed by the NHS.

It might seem like a miracle, therefore, that even some reduction is happening as a result of the current pandemic but, sadly, this is not quite the case. Whilst the mainstream media run puff-pieces on individual women in extraordinary and life-threatening circumstances who are unable to access abortion facilities, intended to tug on the public heartstrings, the majority of women are being put at tremendous risk by the decision to allow them to access abortion pills at home.  In an unprecedented action which directly contravenes in 1967 Abortion Act, women can now access abortion at home, without medical supervision, proper oversight or the legal requirement of two doctors’ signatures https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-52092131.

On 30th March, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (an, Orwellian and euphemistically-named entity which is, in fact, the UK’s largest abortion provider) put out the following Tweet, gleefully announcing that women could access “telemedical” terminations, following a telephone or email conversation with a medical practitioner:

Vulnerable women, poor women, women without psychological, familial or medical support, are now able to take abortion pills – known to pose serious risks to physical and mental health – without even a face-to-face consultation.

This development, effectively decriminalising all abortion in the UK and circumventing its already lax and covert practice, was primarily led by Jess Phillips, the outspoken communist Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley, who was infamously caught laughing on camera at the discussion of male suicide. 

Ms. Phillips said “I always have and always will trust women to make the decisions about their bodies.

“For me that isn’t just a passive view, it has taken struggle and effort for that right to choose to exist. I will continue to be active in that struggle.”

Whilst her statement appears to put emphasis on a woman’s right to choose, in reality it removes women’s choices, failing to give them the full information about the physical, spiritual and psychological effects of “telemedical” abortions, performed without medical supervision or patient awareness about the dangers of this unprecedented practice.

Women are being put at risk. Sold the lie that the “bundle of foetal cells” feels no pain, has no tangible signs of life and is not a living baby – tricked into believing that there are no serious and potentially life-threatening consequences to the abortion pill, prescribed without the support of a physician who should explain the risks of haemorrhaging – their vulnerabilities are being capitalised upon, thanks to the unscrupulous and profiteering practices of the abortion industry in the UK.

At this time, a time when we must all rely upon the love and support of our families and communities, surely the UK has a responsibility to desperate women who feel they have nowhere else to turn? Surely our leaders need to be focusing their efforts on protecting life – all life – the lives of mothers and of babies – and giving women all of the information they need, in order to make informed choices about their futures and the futures of their children?

This shameless exploitation of fear and defencelessness must be stopped: in this time of love and family, women need to be given the real pro-choice option – the option of compassion. The choice to love.

Authored by “K- From the U.K.”