“Whilst our governing politicians fight to defend their heavily criticized wage increases of more than 90%, Christmas and every other day of the year is a plight for survival for families such as this one in Brazil, where each day is merely just another one in a long line of monotonous days and where expectations for positive social change are few and far between.”
street children of Brazil, picture taken by Children At Risk Foundation
A speech made by Princess Haya bint El Hussein to IFAD Governing Council on 19th February 2011, regarding the world hunger crisis. I’d recommend watching it. (It’s in English).
When We Stand Together - Nickelback.
We could feed a starving world with all we throw away, but all we serve are empty words that always taste the same
The photographer says: “The photo was taken in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and is of two children who lived nearby to the junkyard with their grandmother. Every day they searched the junkyard for something useful that they can resell for money so they can buy food. If they don’t find anything their grandmother blamed them seriously. Unfortunately, they had found nothing for a few days, the little boy felt very hungry. I gave them some money and a biscuit after taking this photo. But who knows who will help them afterwards.”
Somewhere in the world, someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds, and 75% of those are children under the age of five.
Baghdad, Iraq. These families are suffering acute deprivation and cannot afford a hot meal nor heating for their homes. Children have had to leave school to seek work while their mothers survive on the generosity of neighbours.
‘The Starving Boy and The Missionary.’ Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death. (World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980).
‘The Children of Black Dust.’ A woman holds her child, blackened by carbon dust. His nose bleeds due to infections caused by exposure to dust and pollution during play in the workshop in Korar Ghat by on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many women bring their children along so they can look after them while working. Health and safety regulations do not exist in these places. Choices do not exist for these children. Remember them.
The pain in my heart on seeing one hungry, thirsty child give another water was overwhelming. Allah protect them. Ameen.
