What is it like to be hungry? Really hungry? Imagine this family.
There is a mother and father and eight children. They live 100 miles from the nearest major town in a small community with others who face the same difficulties. They can't purchase food because they don't have enough money. They must grow everything they eat, but don't have any seeds to plant or tools to cultivate the land. There is a small garden but it is blighted.
A neighbor gives them some maize seeds to plant and a hoe to use. The harvest reaps only half of what was expected-the terrible cracked-earth-kissed-tears of drought.
Because of this the parents can only feed the family once a day, in the evening, and the meal consists mainly of maize, which is like corn, but harder. They think about the last time they ate meat. It was two years ago, and the taste has been long forgotten. Every day the children complain of hunger, but there is nothing to give them.
They cry.
Every day they cry.
They are so hungry.
The parents' own stomachs ache. The pain is ignored-numbing the mind to the body's physical cry. But it never totally goes away. Thin and with little energy, the parents return to the field, to ensure that the maize continues to grow.
They lift the hoe and plunge it back into the earth. Their protein-deprived muscles ache. The cold wind slaps and their tattered clothes provide no protection. But the children's open palms and teary eyes ignite fresh resolve. The hoe is lifted in the air and plunges back into the earth.
This story is based on real facts and realities of families living in Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the world produces enough food to provide adequate nutrition for all of us seven billion people, not everyone has access. People, today, really are going without food.
Through emergency food distributions, seed distributions, teaching farming techniques and economic activity, we strive for a world where people like the ones in this story will hunger no more.
The muddy road twists, laden with boulders, rocks and abandoned vehicles, turns upwards, sideways and plunges, over rivers, through rivers, up and over mountains, hills, into forests and out of them, and finally, onto a sprawling flatland covered with bright green jungle. Kitumba. At night a thousand fireflies shimmer brightly, set against a star splashed, deeply dark sky. By day the searing equatorial sun illuminates the long empty fields. During the better part of 10 years, the two wars in the DRC forced people to abandon their homes for refuge from the fighting. Today, recovering from years of decimation is a slow climb to bounty.
Alacha, a pastor in Kitumba, sat poised, surrounded by children, an infectious amicability coming from his smile. When the war reached Kitumba in 1997, Alacha and his family fled into the jungle, hoping to hide from the conflict between the rebels and the Congolese Government, during which countless civilians were killed. The jungle is a thick tangle of vines, ferns, trees, flowers, rivers, rain and heat. There are no clearings for planting crops and no shelter. Alacha and his family of eight subsisted on what they could pick from trees, they drank river water, covered themselves with tree branches at night to camouflage themselves, and tried to fight off the rampant disease that took the lives of many who fled to the jungle, including two of Alacha's children. In 2004, Alacha returned to Kitumba to rebuild his life. Alacha and his family had spent seven years surviving in the jungle.
But returning to nearly nothing, Alacha found himself unable to provide enough food for his wife and children and saw their health and well-being plummet. Sickness ensued.
FH began holding seed fairs in Alacha's community to fight against the rampant inaccessibility to proper nutrition and help families like Alacha's recover from years of displacement. A seed fair involves local seed vendors giving their seeds to vulnerable widows, orphans and families. FH then reimburses their sale.
Alacha was given enough seed to plant for a full harvest, and sat reflecting on the war, what love is and if peace can ever really come to Congo. "I love 1 John. It's all about love. If we could just love each other, the war would end," Alacha mused.
He took his hands and opened them, eyes scanning the people around him, but clearly looking at something beyond, "what would happen," he began, "if we really did love each other?"
what
+ Training in Agricultural Practices
+ Seed Multiplication
+ Seed and Tool Distribution
+ Soil and Water Conservation
+ Forestry Promotion and Reforestation Activities
+ Livestock Multiplication and Distribution
+ More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day... 300 million are children.
+ Of these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency.
+ Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority are children under the age of 5.
+ Stats From: United Nations Millennium Project, World Food Program
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