To help sustain the services of the hospitals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is providing $600,000 to the ELCZ.  The ELCA is allocating another $330,000 for the purchase of 90 metric tons of seed and fertilizer to help secure food production.

In addition to the $600,000 the ELCA is providing to stabilize and restore the services of the four ELCZ medical institutions, Malpica-Padilla said another critical part of the ELCA's response in Zimbabwe is to purchase food, seeds and fertilizer for distribution to about 15,000 families in an effort to provide "food for today and seed for tomorrow."  He said the planting season is now.  "If seeds are not planted within the next four to five weeks, it will be too late.  The plan is for the seed and fertilizer to be purchased now through local partners in South Africa and transported by truck into Zimbabwe."

"Our hope is that these efforts will leverage the support of the United Nations World Food Programme to assist in providing food for the entire community.  This effort is a collaborative one led by the Lutheran World Federation's regional expression in southern Africa," said Malpica-Padilla.  He added that all funds from the ELCA will be "carefully transferred and will not be wired in one lump sum."  Funds allocated by ELCA Global Mission came from the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

"God is calling us to share, to walk with the hungry and, to the best of our knowledge, speak on behalf of the voiceless. Zimbabwe is only one corner of the world, yet the kind of disaster happening there is  happening all over the world," said Kassahun.  "We are called to share from what we have, share from what is at our table.  That is what the gospel is to me, what I have come to realize.  To feed the hungry is where I find hope and where God wants us all to be."