Hunger

Bogota, Colombia is a capital city filled with commerce and tourism. But, just outside the city center exists a noticeable contrast in housing and economic development where the poorest families reside. Many of the city’s poorest families live on the outskirts in the mountains, and they have very difficult commutes into the city center for work. Without daycare, many of the young parents would not be able to earn an income to support their families. Fe y Alegria, a Jesuit network of organizations helping the disadvantaged and poor since 1955, has preschools within this community offering free services to children up to 5 years of age. These services include: monitoring and evaluating the child’s development, nutritional supplementation and home interventions when needed. The administrator of the preschool feeds the children three nutritious meals per day. Although it doesn’t sound like a huge accomplishment, she does this on just $1 (one…

Michel became a mom in June 2021, when baby Nathan was born; she’s part of the Wayuu community. She lives with her dad, brother and another child that a friend asked her to care for two years ago. She’s a medical laboratory technician and holds a B.A. in Administration. Although she currently works as a Procurement Analyst, she doesn’t make enough to pay for basic needs. Michel has participated in different IRC-supported programs in the community center that is located a couple blocks away from her house. She first visited to get attention after experiencing pain while breast feeding, that’s how she joined the breast-feeding orientation program, in which she has now started to participate to share with other moms-to-be her experience. Additionally, she has joined the Wapushii program after Nathan was born, where she learns how to promote his development during the Early Childhood stage; she also has accessed…

A fight against the spread of hunger is underway across East Africa, where 32.9 million people are experiencing a complex hunger crisis driven by conflict, the economic impacts of the global pandemic, swarms of desert locusts, and extreme weather conditions. According to the United Nations, at least 5.3 million people in Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan are living under “emergency” conditions, with the threat of acute malnutrition and death. In South Sudan, 105,000 are living under “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity. By air, land, and sea, World Vision teams are delivering emergency food supplies across the region—an area so vast it equates to more than half the size of the United States—in a race to feed hungry families living in some of the most dangerous and isolated places on earth. “We are marshaling resources to support vulnerable communities across East Africa to avert the catastrophic effects of hunger and loss…

In 2021 as disruptions due to the pandemic continued to impact the people we serve, Rise Against Hunger implemented the 2021 COVID-19 Relief & Resilience Plan to bolster and sustain one of our key priorities–Nourishing Lives through Local Food Procurement. Funds for Local or regional procurement of food commodities were provided to our impact partners through grants, cash-based assistance, cooperative agreements, and other mechanisms. Programming leveraged resources, skills, and partnerships with local suppliers, and enhanced the delivery of a nutrition-rich food basket, including cereals, cooking oil, fresh fruits, and vegetables, proteins, sugar, and salt. Local regional procurement began in Timor-Leste during 2021. Despite restrictions on movement due to the pandemic, the team started distribution in July reaching various sites including schools, refugee camps, and orphanages. Before, Mario and his two siblings picked up odd jobs to pay for their hostel while they attended the university. After the onset of the…

When the East African Youth Inclusion project formed the Zirobwe Kalagala hub in Uganda, Mpiima Mohamed joined of one of the hub’s beneficiary groups, Situka Youth Development. Before joining, Mohamed had dropped out of high school because his parents couldn’t afford his education. He began engaging in small-scale tomato farming on his family’s land. While he had the skills to grow tomatoes, Mohamed did not have access to the capital required to expand his business into a large-scale operation. Upon joining the project, Mohamed received training in business development that enabled him to see opportunities to expand his harvest. He engaged in the group’s saving and lending activities from which he borrowed small loans to invest in his business and expand his tomato garden. Mohamed had saved $135, but it was not enough for the garden size he had always wanted, so he borrowed $270. He used the total funds…

Kids Kingdom Orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico – Estrella, age 11, and her twin brothers, age five, were brought to Kids Kingdom by police in March 2021. They were rescued from a family environment where violence and drug abuse were common occurrences. Estrella and her brothers were neglected, given little food, and did not attend school. Even at her young age, Estrella felt responsible for her brothers and took care of them as best she could. Her only focus was their daily survival. When Estrella first arrived at Kids Kingdom, she was very shy and withdrawn. She and her brothers were given three hot meals a day, a safe environment, and the opportunity to make new friends. Estrella finally had a chance to be a kid, and not worry about her next meal or her brothers’ well-being. Estrella is becoming very social and outgoing in this new, safe environment. She is…