Encountering Mary’s hunger and poverty this Christmas
The year 2021, and this Christmas is like no other in our lifetime. Nearly two years of battling the coronavirus has devastated our economy, our world, divided families and led to tragic loss of life.
Today, more than ever, we are continually exposed to and aware of hunger and poverty in our world, whether it is in Yemen, Ethiopia, Congo, Mali, Bangladesh or South Sudan. Yet, the ability to help those who are suffering seems like it can be far from our reach. Many of our brothers and sisters all over the world are surviving on just one cup of rice per day.
Intellectually, we understand the common drivers of food insecurity: conflict, displacement, poverty and climate change. We understand the basic human right to life and a basic standard of living, including food. We understand, and we are outraged. But is it enough?
The passage in James 2:15-16, "Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them,’Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" It reminds us that faith must be accompanied with action. It is not simply enough to send good wishes with the hopes that words will suffice to alleviate someone's condition. While being empathetic is necessary, it must also be translated into good deeds and real action.
This year, yet again, while the coronavirus pandemic has continued to push us apart, it has also pulled us together. In my work with Self Help Africa, I have to admit that I’ve badly missed the regular interactions I enjoyed with the many friends, donors, and volunteers who support us in our work. While I was lucky enough to have a few outdoor fundraising events over the past number of months, unfortunately, I have not been able to organise many of the usual fundraisers such as cycles, runs or raffles. In addition, I miss sharing laughs, visiting clubs, schools or communities, but if coronavirus has taught me anything, it is that we are all in this together.
Hunger and poverty are problems that have plagued humanity for thousands of years and they continue to haunt us today. For many, the coronavirus has made circumstances even worse than they were. As the world shut down, pandemic restrictions interrupted supply and distribution, making food less available and affordable. COVID-19 has been a multiplier and a magnifier of global hunger. Africa has also been fighting more than a global pandemic these last two years.
Some of its countries have been experiencing intense humanitarian crises, with nations wrestling against high hunger rates, civil unrest, natural disasters, and public health threats that aren’t the coronavirus. Not only has Africa been left behind on the mission to secure enough COVID-19 vaccines for its population, it is also home to some of the world’s hunger hotspots with two out of three people in the world impacted by food insecurity living on the continent.
Self Help Africa works to alleviate the extremes of this poverty crisis, and each year the Irish public support us – by buying ‘virtual’ gifts like livestock, beehives, seeds and other tools and equipment for rural poor African families. Our Christmas Lifetime Gifts provide a great opportunity to give something thoughtful to your nearest and dearest, and at the same time give something thoughtful to someone you’ve never met – but who really needs it.
Imagine the impact that a new beehive – together with training, support, and a swarm of bees – could have for a rural poor mum in Kenya or Uganda. Once they’ve received training in how to make and properly maintain their hives and their swarms, a new beekeeper can earn more than €40 per season per hive – and they very often have five or six occupied with bees at any particular time. It’s the same with gifts of chicks, or pigs or goats – they provide families with a vital source or income – and also the security of having something that they can sell if they find themselves in need of income, at a particular time.
Mary's story
In Kenya the last time I visited I spoke to a 35-year-old mother, Mary, who was selling milk to the Keringet Dairy Cooperative and was earning a decent living from her efforts. Thanks to the support she received from Self Help Africa she was growing more than an acre of elephant grass which she used as fodder for her animals, and was supplementing her income as a ‘paravet’- visiting other livestock owners and checking their animals for parasites and disease.
We had trained Mary in her supplementary career, and she was loving the experience and the opportunity to help others in her community.
The Keringet Cooperative is a dairy and horticultural cooperative that’s been supported by Self Help Africa for over 10 years, and is now a key processor and bulker of milk in a region where many households keep dairy cows as a source of food and income.
At Keringet they’ve installed a chilling unit and other equipment to process and add value to raw milk, and have a network of freelance collectors who pick up small churns for transport to the plant – much the same as happened here not that many decades ago.
After visiting the co-op we called to Mary at her homestead, and I had a chance to speak to her teenage son Lawrence and daughter Joan, and heard from both that they were still attending school, and were aiming to become the first generation in their family to complete High School.Their mum was immensely proud of the pair of them, and said that she wanted to support both of them for as far as they could go with their education. She predicted that both would some day achieve their goals – to become a doctor and a surgeon, respectively. Mary was aware that they had a steep hill to climb – not least of which was the costs of continuing education, but on top of that the cost of the accommodation and subsistence that would be necessary if they moved out of home to Nakuru, the Western Kenyan city where the nearest university was located.
Mary wasn’t sure she could afford to send both of them to college, and although the chance would come to Lawrence sooner than it would to her daughter, because he was a grade ahead in school, she was determined not to discriminate against her oldest daughter.
“I understand the challenge and I understand that the easy thing to do is to send Lawrence to college and for Mary to get a job nearer to home,” she said. “But she’s so bright, she deserves the same chance, and I’m going to work very hard to provide it for her,” she pledged. Self Help Africa works with hundreds of thousands of hard-working families like that of Mary, and they all have similar hopes and dreams – that their children might enjoy a better life
.