This week, Integral Alliance — a network of Christian humanitarian organizations Medical Teams belongs to — released a new report about the factors driving neglected crises. A “neglected crisis” occurs when people are hurting and need help, but there isn’t sufficient global awareness or humanitarian aid to address the crisis. So today, we’re focusing the power of prayer for neglected crises together.

The Integral Alliance’s report is worth reading in its entirety. Read it here.

After reading the report, you’ll have a better understanding of why crises become neglected. There are often complex webs of causes, including conflict, climate change, and poor governance. Additionally, the delivery of humanitarian aid can be limited by cultural, economic, and political factors. There is often an imbalance in news coverage and donor interest to contend with as well.

As a faithful community and network of humanitarian aid organizations, we know that prayer is a powerful way to act. Here are a few crises to pray and focus your giving on in the coming weeks and months. You can also download these prayer points from Integral Alliance.

Pray for neglected crises

Integral Alliance shared a passage of scripture that’s particularly applicable for prayer toward neglected crises.

1 John 5:14 reminds us,

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

With that passage in our hearts, join us in prayer for people in neglected crises:

• Pray for peace, safety, and help for families living in Burkina Faso, Myanmar, and Sudan, where displacement and violence have become the new normal and life feels like a constant emergency
• Pray for enough food for Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Madagascar where millions of families are suffering food shortages and drought
• Pray for provision and protection for Integral Members and their local Partners working in these countries
• Pray for governments to focus primarily on the level of need and vulnerability within a country when making funding decisions
• Pray for donors to begin or continue to support crises that are not in the media and are underfunded
• Pray for us all to be generous to hose affected by neglected crises even when we face our own struggles
• Pray for international organizations to support and strengthen locally-led crisis responses which are often more effective and sustainable
• Pray for internal organizations to lobby their governments about their climate commitments, recognizing that the impact of climate change is felt most intensely by the poorest and most vulnerable communities, especially those living in fragile and conflicted affected settings

Prayer points are courtesy of Integral Alliance. You can download them here.

How to help people in neglected crises

Integral Alliance and our Partners are responding around the world to neglected crises every day. Medical Teams is proud to be caring on the ground in Colombia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

Learn more about the factors that contribute to neglected crises here.  Another way to help people in neglected crises is to make a donation. All of the countries the Integral Alliance serves in received less than 55% of the funding they required in 2023, except for South Sudan.

Your gift today will go to work caring for people in forgotten places right away! Give now.