When You Wake

You wake in the morning to the sound of the alarm clock. You groan and want just five more minutes, snuggling into the depths of your warm bed. You finally get up and pop into the shower letting the hot steamy water roll over you as you pour you new body wash by Elizabeth Arden and lather the scent over you. You rinse and jump out to wrap in a big fluffy forty dollar towel. Run downstairs and pour a cup of espresso and hurry and drink your juice and gobble your pastry. Run and put on your designer dress and put on your makeup and put the hot rollers in your hair. You enjoy the sound of Vivaldi  that softly comes from the speakers. You brush out your hair and spray it and out the door to jump in your Lexus and head to work, where you enjoy your office with it’s 125,00 dollar view.

You wake in the morning to the sound of your child, whimpering in her sleep. You know the bad dreams she has from running from the soldiers and watching her Daddy being taken and beaten in front of her. You know she is also hungry and has only had a small handful of leaves, and some Mukheit berries that had soaked for three days in a little bit of water to remove the toxicity. Today, you must wake your child and prepare to search for  more leaves and hopefully some wild grass to at least make a little flour. You will try to get water without being shot or raped. Without life giving water you cannot eat the Mukheit berry or make flour into bread. You look out at the barren desert in front of you. You adjust the cloth about your face tighter to shield yourself from the scorching sun. Hopefully you can make a few more miles toward your goal of a refugee camp. If only you make it with yours and your child’s life.


The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people that are evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

                                            Albert Einstein

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
                                             Albert Einstein

Is Food Shortage The Cause Of Death In Impoverished Nations?

Most people think that starvation is what is the cause of death among the worlds hungry. Disease from too little food is what causes death, not just the absence of food. Weakened bodies from too little food are susceptible to disease, mental retardation in fetuses, slow growth and  slow thinking.

Is there a shortage of food to feed the worlds hungry? You would be surprised to learn that global food supplies far out strip demand. There are 5 things that contribute to most of the world’s hunger.

Poverty. Poor people lack the resources needed to grow or buy food on a consistent basis. These resources may include, land, tools or money.

Armed conflict. War disrupts agricultural programs, and governments spend more on arms than on social programs.

Environmental overload. Rapid population growth in poor nations and  over consumption by wealthy nations, strain natural resources and make it harder for poor people to feed themselves.

Discrimination. Often the result of racial, gender or ethnic discrimination is from lack of access to education, credit and employment, this is a recipe for hunger.

Lack of clout. In the final analysis, hunger is caused by powerlessness. People who do not have the power to protect their own interests are hungry. The burden of this condition falls most acutely on children, women and elderly people.

Self-help solutions to a World wide  problem. Unlike famine or periodic hunger due to war or natural disasters, chronic hunger is a persistent and insidious condition that can effect generations of people in a geographic region. To alleviate this condition, efforts must address root causes, be sustainable and they must be implemented by local people for the long term.

Freedom from hunger’s credit with education program is just such a strategy. They are transferring the program technology they have developed to local people around the world. These people are using it to help their own families and communities.

Freedom from hunger was founded in 1946, and is a non profit, international organization that brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty