Today is Blog Action Day and I have been trying to come up with something to write for two weeks. Last year was easy for me because I already had knowledge about lack of clean drinking water around the world. I knew about charity:water and Blood Water Mission's work so I had a lot of information to share. This year Blog Action Day is about food in honor of World Food Day. I had no idea what to write about.
I started doing a little reading about the famine in Africa and found some interesting information on One.org. Due to a drought there is a food shortage there and so many people are dying because of it. 30,000 children died in three months! That's so sad and not necessary. One is proposing a program called Fight the Famine, Feed the Future where they educate people about food and farming and help them to sustain the markets themselves.
Here are a couple of examples.
In Kenya, the US and it's partners have people to build rainwater catchment systems made out of local rock and use drip irrigation systems - to make sure they have drinking water and water for their farms when the dry season starts.
In Tanzania, the Vitamin A for Africa campaign educates mothers and children about the nutritious benefits of orange sweet potatoes, and agriculture advisors introduce farmers to this crop so that they can meet the demand from moms.
These sound like very small things but they can impact a community and it's economy in huge ways. So, One has asked that we sign a petition showing our support by asking the US government to help fund programs like this that will save thousands of lives in Africa. I signed and I hope that you will, too. :-)
Be sure to check back here this afternoon. I have a new plushie to share with you...and just by crazy, random happenstance it's a food plushie! I'll tell you the story about it later. See you then! :-)
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