Journey of Hunger and Survival | A Child in a War-Torn Country
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A child growing up in a war-torn country will never know what peace feels like. They know only the constant fear and uncertainty of living amidst fighting and conflict. What can be more terrifying than not knowing when the next attack or raid by militants is going to occur? I was born in a war-stricken country. Kenya is one of the most volatile countries in Africa right now with an ongoing violence and insurgency over ideological, religious, tribal, political differences... You name it; we have our differences as well as many Kenyans do too. The only difference between us is that they are rebels who want us to be enemies while we are just loyalists who want them to get along with each other and live peacefully. I am an Ethnic Somali who lives in a remote north-eastern region called Lamu, which has been ravaged by wars for decades now. We are the minorities here and so we must do everything possible to protect ourselves from invaders at all cost. Unfortunately this means we have little access to food or serviceable opportunities for our children either -- unless you count raiding livestock farms for meat as access to food. This leads many of us into traps where we end up starving instead of getting fed. As long as there is no peace, there will be no security for our people either because if there’s no serviceable supply of food in our country so those who control it see no need for it themselves or their agents can always threaten them with death otherwise. Most importantly
In the beginning
I was born in a small city called Mandera in 1983. It was a peaceful place where I enjoyed growing up, playing and being friends with my siblings. We were a large extended family. We lived in a two-roomed mud house with my grandparents who took care of us like our parents were away on business trips. My childhood was idyllic until one day my grandfather returned back home with a pale face and complained that his animals had been killed by someone. It was an invasion! The next day, the entire family was evacuated to my grandmother’s house in the neighbouring city of Isiolo where I lived in a small hut with my siblings and cousins. Our father stayed back with our livestock and possessions. We continued to live in fear and insecurity.
Food insecurity and hunger
Africa is the most food insecure continent in the world, with over one billion people facing hunger in a country with the world’s largest food resources. There are millions of people who are not getting what they need from their basic needs to the point where they are dying from hunger. Hunger is not only about not having enough food in your stomach, it is about not having food in your head: brain hunger. It is about not being able to think clearly, not being able to plan for the future, it is about not having access to health care. It is about not knowing when you will see your next meal. It is about dying from lack of food and not being able to feed your children properly. This is not a problem that is only happening in other countries, it is a problem that is happening all over the world, but it is happening in a very visible way in some African countries.
What can be done to end hunger?
We need to understand the root causes of hunger and start working on solutions. We need to understand that food security is not just the supply of food but it is the right to access and to consume the food. We need to do many things. First, we need to understand hunger and food insecurity. We need to understand how hunger works and why some people are always hungry while others are never hungry. We need to understand how to measure hunger and how to measure food insecurity. We need to understand how people are affected by hunger and food insecurity. We need to understand how to measure these things in our daily lives, so that we can measure the quality of life of our people.
The need for innovative approaches to development
We need to approach development in a different way. We are not talking about food or agriculture but about human development. We need to understand the importance of equity and inclusion in development. We need to understand that development is not just about the supply of food, it is about the people’s right to live with dignity. We need to understand that development is about human rights, access to services, access to health care, access to education, access to crèches and access to jobs.
Summary
It is time that we find solutions to our own problems, and it is time to understand the root causes of hunger and hunger insecurity. We need to understand that food, agriculture and agriculture are not the solutions to all our problems. We need to understand that development is not only about food and agriculture, it is about human development. We need to understand that the right to live with dignity, the right to health care, the right to education and the right to jobs are the solutions to hunger and hunger insecurity. All these things can be achieved by developing our human resources. We need to focus on our education system, we need to focus on our health care system, we need our crèche system and we need to develop our job opportunity system and our skills system. All of these things can help us to end hunger and hunger insecurity in our country.
