Times are really tough. It has been days since I've had any food to eat. Days since my children have eaten. We found some meager food today and I divided it among my children to barely ward off the sever hunger pains they are feeling. I didn't take any for myself.
My little ones cry constantly. Begging me to feed them. Begging me to soothe their pain. I watch them waste away and I am powerless to do anything.
I watch friends and neighbors die of starvation, knowing our turn will come. My tears do not stop. How can I watch my children die?
How much do you know about hunger? Have you ever gone a whole day without eating? Maybe you were dieting and went through some hungry moments. Maybe you fasted for a day. Maybe you grew up in a home without much food and had to go to school without breakfast.
No matter how much, or little, you've experienced hunger, you've never experienced starvation. Can you imagine not eating for days? Can you imagine listening to the screams of your hungry children and have not substantial food to feed them? Can you imagine being so desperate that you eat cow dung?
People are starving like this in many places around the world. Right now there are thousands of people dying in Uganda because they have no food to eat. War and drought has left a whole region starving. The Amuria district is reported to have 19,000 people starving and the Katakwi district has 55,000 people starving. These are only two districts! There are others!! People are feeding on leaves, ash, cow dung and termites!
Please read this article on allAfrica.com for more in depth information. Must we just sit back and watch people die? No, we can't watch them. We are a world away. We are here, they are there. We are in our homes, that we've earned. Right. We deserve what we have, right?
Just Mothering Through wrote in her post, Under the cloak of frugality; "...just because we have a higher paying job than our neighbor does not mean we are entitled to nicer vacations, homes or things. There are so many factors that went into you being who and were you are today and I would say that about 90% of them had nothing to do with you. When we start to use terms like "deserve" for the abundance in our own lives we enter a scary place and imply that those who do not have also "deserve" their fate. We all know that this is not true. There are too many people in the world who suffer due to circumstances far outside of their control."
Feel helpless? Like nothing you could possibly do could make a difference?
***check out my next post to see how you can actually make a difference***
