Pray for: Duane and Marcia Binkley

Pray for food crisis looming in Karen refugee camps.
Prayer request from Duane and Marcia Binkley who serve Burmese ethnic Karen and Chin refugees both in the United States and Thailand. 

Duane writes: Rice prices and tight supplies are starting to make the news in the U.S.   But the sky rocketing rice price and the weak dollar are creating a crisis for the refugee camps housing the Karen in Thailand.
 
Right now, the monthly rations given to the Karen in the camps amount to the minimum international standard of 2100 calories per person per day.  Even if the rice price stays at its current level, unless additional donations are received, refugees would receive a ration of 944 calories /day/person during the second half of this year.  But, this would have to be reduced to 555 calories/person/day if the rice price continues to rise as seems quite likely.
 
These ration levels could lead to severe malnutrition or starvation within a short time.  Many would likely leave the camps to seek food and work illegally which would make them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.  The situation could not get more critical.  To avoid ration cuts, an additional $7.5 million is needed within the next few weeks.
 
This information is from correspondence from the TBBC (Thailand Burma Border Consortium) which supplies all the food and building materials for the 9 camps along the Thai-Burma border.  (For additional information go to www.tbbc.org.)
 
•    Please be in prayer for this situation.  For those of you with Karen in your communities or churches, this will be a matter of deep concern as most will have family and friends still in the camps.  For camp residents still undecided about whether to come to the U.S. or not, this might influence more to come, increasing the numbers of Karen around the country as well.

Also Pray concerning the Global Food Crisis.

- The Governments of Thailand, India and Brazil have announced that they will stop or limit the exporting of rice.
- Thai rice (100%B type) now costs more than $1,000 per ton. It has gone up three times since January 2008.
- The Sam's club in Florida has put a limit of the purchase of 4 bags of rice per customer.
- In the US, the price of rice has been increased from $22 to $40-50 (per bag of 100 pounds) in six months.