Children Are Crying For Food, Says Christian Pastor

20 December 2009: Chin villagers in mautam-hit remote areas of Southern Chin State face a severe shortage of food ahead of most anticipated Christmas and New Year, according to a Chin pastor last Friday.

A Chin Christian pastor who works among the Dai-Chin villagers in central parts of Southern Chin State said: “When travelling to villages to preach the gospel, my members share with me their situation. The children are crying for food, and my heart is so broken, but there is nothing I can do for them. I just pray and encourage them to trust the Lord.”

The villagers are said to have yielded only 5-10 buckets of paddy crops from their fields where they expected 70-100 buckets.

As one of the Chin tribes, Dai people live in a bamboo-covered area where four townships converge and the place is currently one of the worse mautam-affected parts, according to the Chin pastor whose name is not revealed for security reasons.

The food crisis, locally called mautam, will be followed by malnutrition, illness and death and I therefore request all of you to pray and remember these perishing people in Jesus’ name, added the Chin pastor.

Food crisis, caused by a plague of crop-destroying rats whose population surges rapidly after eating bamboo fruits, has been ravaging the whole Chin State of Burma since 2007.

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Chinland Guardian