Hunger: a crisis within a crisis
I cannot stop thinking about the issue of hunger in the heavily populated African country of Nigeria. Despite the nationwide curfew, many panicked people took to the streets in Abuja. They are anxious about the lack of food. “Don’t lock us up, we get sick.”, they say.
Peter Adeeko, a 2017 kanthari graduate and founder of Soulace Africa Peace Academy, works with war widows and their children.
As the authorities have not been able to sufficiently support war veterans and/or their relatives, Peter started business workshops for widows, besides offering peace-building courses.
However, with the lockdown in place, business cannot go on as usual. For those who have just started to get on their feet, this came as a particularly big blow.
“I get one call after another; all are begging for support.” Says Peter while he was on the way to the market. While many local governing bodies are issuing staple food to the poor, Nigeria does not seem to be ready to do this yet. The insecurity, however, leads to many people panicking.
Against the advice of friends, Peter developed a concept for a “food bank” even before Corona. Food should be collected and distributed to those in need. As the child of a war veteran, he knows the importance of providing care.
But his friends believed the concept was superfluous and that it would only make people dependent. This did not deter Peter; he collects donations and food and prepares meals that are distributed to those who need it most.
Naresh from Telangana, India, 2017 kanthari graduate and founder of Tharunam (a word that has two meanings: Crisis and Opportunity), has launched a comprehensive program on “Food Literacy”. He teaches in schools and travels through villages to encourage families to become organic vegetable growers themselves.
“Currently, there are three main problems.” He says, “Normally people travel from place to place. Now they’re all stuck. If, at the time of the announcement of the lockdown, an excess number of people happened to be in one place and they could not get away in time, they now got stuck there for three long weeks. So, a large crowd of people with limited amount of food.
Since the lockdown seriously affects the distribution of food, supplies are lagging. Many farmers, especially those who have to walk far, cannot go to the field. That would go against the lockdown regulations. So, whatever is currently growing, might not get harvested at all, or too late.
Additionally, less supply drives up the prices of vegetables and especially poor people can no longer eat a balanced diet. This in turn makes them weak and so they are more susceptible to any disease, including Corona.”
Naresh’s organization, Tharunam, is committed to making everyone a vegetable farmer. His approach is to decentralize the cultivation of vegetables.
“And how would this work when people don’t have their own piece of land?” I ask. His answer: “Many vegetables need rather shady places and can be grown on a roof terrace, a shed, in a courtyard. You can plant vegetables in buckets, old pots or pot lids, in cans, on stairs and windowsills. We need to get people to be more aware about their food production and consumption.”
For him, the mindset change starts with children. “Once children know what’s good for them, what vegetables to grow and why it’s important to eat them, they become ambassadors.”
Because of one Covid-19 case, his village is currently cut off from the outside world.
One sign of hope; people in his region now see the importance of his mission: to make sustainable food production a global skill.
www.tharunam.org