Stories

The year 2020 saw a jump in the number of people falling into the “extreme poor” category, with an estimated 97 million COVID-19 induced new poor people in the world. The bulk of these families live in South Asia (58 per cent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (23 per cent).

The Horn of Africa, home to Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, and South Sudan, is experiencing a severe food crisis. Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are in their fourth season of drought, the worst the region has seen in over 40 years. With more than 80 per cent of the population relying on subsistence farming, this is a life-threatening situation. To compound the strain caused by the drought, the conflict in Ukraine is choking imports and causing food shortages - nearly one-third of East Africa’s cereal supply comes from Russia and Ukraine. In addition, fertilizer supplies from Europe have been disrupted. Climate change-induced drought and increased temperatures are devastating not only agriculture, but grasslands and water resources as well, meaning tens of millions of livestock animals have perished.

It’s a bright, sunny morning and you’ve made some healthy buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. Digging through your pantry for some punchy, flavourful toppings, you pull out blueberry jam, almond butter, and some honey. Thinking briefly about the bees that make your honey, you spread a liberal amount of the sweet, sticky topping on your pancakes. Little do you realize, it’s not just honey that bees are responsible for. Without bees, you would not have any ingredients that make up your breakfast! Buckwheat pancakes, blueberry jam, and almond butter all come from crops that bees play a large role in pollinating.

Two years ago, Maria’s husband Antonio went blind. It was an unexpected blow to the family. Suddenly, Maria found herself solely responsible for their five children, the youngest of whom was just a newborn. In her small, rural community of Vichibala, Guatemala, there aren’t many job opportunities. And even if there were, Maria had no one to provide childcare.

This Earth Day, I've been thinking a lot about Guatemala's Indigenous women and girls– not only about the adverse effect climate change has on their lives, but also the potential they have to transform their communities to be resilient to those effects.

We realize that charity gift catalogues can be confusing—you’re buying a gift but you don’t receive a gift, but someone in North America gets the gift...but not really—they get a card, not a gift... Sooo, who gets your goat?

When Food for the Hungry (FH) started work in Amhara, Ethiopia, they saw that many of the children were going hungry. Unable to get the nutrients they needed to grow up strong and healthy, their bodies and minds struggled. In technical terms, the children were suffering from chronic malnutrition and severe stunting. In heart terms, the kids were half starved and their parents couldn’t stand it.

Before partnering with FH, many communities farmed and gardened in ways they had done for centuries. While traditional farming methods are important, it’s also necessary to incorporate simple new agricultural techniques that keep soil healthy and diversify crops. As FH partners with communities, many are looking for better agricultural success. Implementing these new practices are the first place to start.

Before encountering FH in 2017, Jeannette was just another teenage student in high school in Busekera, Rwanda.

Temesgen is a farmer who lives in Dangali Gongo, Ethiopia. He's 40 and has three daughters and a son.

Anyone who has ever spent time on a farm knows how fickle the field of agriculture is. A little bad weather, a natural disaster, or an insect infestation can derail a farmer’s work so severely that they have to start over.

Some call it "Farming God's Way." It's a way of farming that incorporates major values taught in the Bible; values like redemption, rest, stewardship of the earth, and more.

For holistic and integrated development to succeed, everyone needs to pitch in, and everyone's pitch counts. Whether it's $25 for a pair of chickens or $100 for a sewing machine - each contribution is an integral piece of the vibrant mosaic of a thriving community.

Joseph Mpawemina is a member of the coffee growers’ cooperative at Musema, Burundi. With 1,250 coffee trees, it is expensive and hard work to mulch the trees in the dry season. The work involves cutting bundles of grass and spreading the grass on the ground between the coffee trees to prevent the growth of weeds, preserve the moisture in the soil and eventually to form compost to improve the fertility of the soil.