When food is not a pleasure but a necessity for life
16/10/2006
When food is not a pleasure but a necessity for life
As we mark World Food Day on 16 October, the National Director of international development agency ChildFund New Zealand, Paul Brown, urges New Zealanders to remember the millions of adults and children whose lives depend on the assistance of relief agencies. Every day around the globe feeding programmes and other lifesaving activities such as drilling water boreholes and the provision of livestock help protect vulnerable people where food is not a pleasure but a necessity.
In a country that is spoilt for choice when it comes to food – it’s very easy to overlook that for some families the absolute basics are a blessing. Let’s face it - whether it’s eating in, dining out, takeaways, ready meals, food festivals or just a packed lunch – on the whole New Zealanders do not go hungry. Ironically, we’re starting to talk about how obesity is affecting us as a nation.
But for more than 850 million people worldwide there is never enough food and today, one in seven people do not eat enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Their lack of food supply makes hunger and malnutrition the number one world health risk worldwide – greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
World Food Day on 16 October is an international day chosen to mark the plight of people around the world who do not get enough food, and whose health and livelihood is desperate because of this. One of the regions hardest hit by famine and drought is Kenya. Only in January this year the Kenyan Government declared a national emergency as 4 million Kenyans faced death by starvation. In response ChildFund New Zealand launched a nationwide emergency appeal in an effort to assist up to 60,000 children at risk of dying from dehydration and lack of food. ChildFund has been working in Kenya since 1960 and at the time of the national emergency already had workers on the ground helping with the supplementary feeding programmes.
ChildFund relief workers were in a position to immediately provide more supplementary feeling for the most vulnerable – young children, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and vulnerable adults. Renzo Benfatto, a ChildFund relief worker who has assisted with emergencies such as the South East Asia tsunami and the war torn zones of Sierra Leone and Rwanda, described the situation in Kenya as extremely serious. He described how children in the hardest hit areas might have to walk 20 kilometres a day to fetch water for their families – for some children this could involve a 12 hour return trip beginning as early as 3am to avoid the worst of the heat. For many of these children a single handful of maize may constitute their only meal of the day. Renzo reported carcasses of livestock littering the roadsides. Over the past 12 months tens of thousands of cattle and other livestock have died in Kenya. For Kenyans who prize their livestock as a major source of food, this is a very worrying indication of a deepening drought.
Since ChildFund launched its appeal in January it has been able to provide NZ$240,000 for the initial emergency response and assist more than 1.3 million children and families across 52 districts in Kenya. But we have delivered more than temporary aid – we have been able to help drill boreholes, extend water pipelines, purchase livestock, distribute seeds and get involved with the community to ensure that we help communities develop sustainably and prevent similar emergency situations in the future.
One of the biggest problems that regions hit by severe famine and poverty face is that children become very vulnerable to child labour, exposure to violence and prostitution, and they are at risk of dropping out of school, and general poor health due to their lowered immune systems. There are a high number of children in Kenya who have lost one or both parents due to HIV/Aids and it is these children who are most at risk. At a basic level they have no one to help them procure food and they are much more at risk of missing out on basic health and welfare opportunities if no one is looking out for them.
ChildFund New Zealand now has more than 3,500 New Zealand sponsored children in Kenya and one solely sponsored New Zealand project in Emali, Kenya.
World Food Day is a great opportunity for Kiwis to make a real long-term difference to these communities and to help them rebuild their lives. With the help of new donations, ChildFund will be able to concentrate its work in 16 drought affected districts in the Eastern Province and Rift Valley Province identified as most needy, and then follow this up with longer term efforts to construct and maintain water supply for those most in need.
New Zealanders can make a real difference to the lives of these children and families by making a donation to ChildFund. Call 0800 223 111 or visit www.childfund.org.nz
Dorca’s Story – The difference child sponsorship makes (278)
Recovery from malnutrition takes a long time. When ChildFund met 3-year-old Dorca last year in Kenya, she was suffering from third degree malnutrition, the most severe stage. Since she began participating in our emergency response feeding program, her malnutrition has decreased to second degree. When we met her, she could neither stand nor walk on her own. Now, she can do both with ease.
But second degree malnutrition also means that Dorca has a long way to go. On most days, you’ll see her in the company of other children at the Kandebene Early Childhood Centre, where children converge to receive a high-protein porridge made from soy, maize, millet, wheat and water, provided by ChildFund. She also attends clinics at the Isiolo District Hospital regularly.
In October 2005, Dorca became severely malnourished after suffering months of drought. The ChildFund programme in Isiolo, Kenya identified her as a child who needed close attention through therapeutic and supplementary feeding. ChildFund worked closely with the Isiolo district hospital, which offered medical treatment and advice while ensuring that she had access to the emergency feeding programme.
Now, ChildFund also assists Dorca’s family by providing food rations of beans, maize, skimmed milk and locally prepared corn soya blend flour for Dorcas and her younger sister Angelina on a monthly basis. ChildFund provides Dorca with clothing and assists her mother and grandmother with parental care and guidance. Her family is also being assisted to look at an alternative livelihood, instead of solely relying on crop production and animal husbandry. By working with Dorca and her family, ChildFund through child sponsorship has been able to make a real long term difference to this child in need.
About ChildFund New Zealand
ChildFund New Zealand is an international child development organisation which works in 54 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean and assisting 11.4 million children and family members regardless of race, creed or gender.
ChildFund New Zealand, a member of ChildFund International, works for the well-being of children by supporting locally-led initiatives that strengthen families and communities, helping them overcome poverty and protect the rights of their children.
ChildFund's comprehensive programs incorporate health, education, nutrition and livelihood interventions that sustainably protect, nurture and develop children. ChildFund works in any environment where poverty, conflict and disaster threaten the well-being of children.
Ed noted: Photos (of Dorca and Paul Brown) are available on request by contacting Network PR (Charlotte Winstone) on 09 306 5810 or email charlotte.winstone@networkpr.com
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