Nothing for Dinner

     The most important part of development I would say is nutrition. Without proper nutrition, there are so many developmental issues that may occur like stunted growth, poor brain development, and lack of muscle tone, strength, and bottom line, death. Something as simple as food can cause a great deal of harm.

A friend here in Colombia shared a story with me of her childhood. When she was around 5 years old, her mother lost her job and was left with no income. She lived with her mother and her grandmother in a small house in a poor neighborhood. When her mother was left without a job, she remembers her mother had to send her to a neighbor’s house to be fed because she did not have enough money for food.   Her mother and grandmother would go days with no food. Although she tried to save her family a bit of food from what they would give her from the neighbor’s house, it was still very little. Luckily, her neighbors and other friends started giving her weekly groceries that was just enough for the 3 of them. Her mother looked for any job that she could get. After about a year, her mother landed a job as a housekeeper and was able to provide once again for the family. My friend describes this time in her life very hard and sad. She is very happy that her neighbors were caring enough to provide food for her and her family. She now helps other in need any way she can, knowing that it is now her time to give back.

Here in Colombia, hunger continues to be a big stressor for many children in many regions of this country. Just like there can be wealth and richness on one side of the street, just across the other side there can be whole families being rationed to a handful of food each day. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), although Colombia has a middle-income country status, 21 million Colombians are poor and 6 million live below the extreme poverty line. WFP has helped about 9,000 mothers needing food for their children. Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF) has also helped many families in Colombia. At the school where I work, in December we ‘adopt’ a neighbor and the families within that neighborhood. Each classroom is assigned a family. We create a “caja del amor”, which is a love box. We are provided with a basic shopping list of food and hygiene products as well as a list of names and ages of everyone in that that household. Every student in the class brings something from the list. We also encourage children to bring a gift for a person on the list. These boxes are delivered during the holiday season which helps these families with their meals.

http://www.solidaridadenmarcha.org.co/caja-del-amor/

http://www.wfp.org/countries/colombia

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/countries/americas/colombia