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NOURISHING THE HUMAN SPIRIT
A booklet created by children so they can partner with the United Nations
in eliminating hunger
Written by the participants of the
1997 World Summit of Children INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT
July 23-August 1, 1997
Republic of China on Taiwan
WITH MUCH LOVE !
and
Dedicated to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
in support of their FOOD FOR ALL Campaign
INTRODUCTION
Definition of hunger: A craving or urgent need for food.
Definition of a problem: A question or dilemma to be solved.
What is the problem ?.......... Hunger.
Our goal is rather simple. We want to promote and establish food security, and most of all, increase awareness of the FOOD FOR ALL Campaign being sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The following excerpt from the song We Will Work Hand in Hand was written during the Nigerian 1997 World Summit of Children PrepCom. It sums up our mission.
The children of the world die due to pains,
malnutrition, bad health, starvation,
and we are here today to give them a future,
a better tomorrow.
We will work hand in hand to determine our goal,
up on our feet.
We will take our stand to do something great for this world !
Are you hungry ?
Have you ever missed a meal ?
Could you imagine having no food for a week ?
Imagine living with this hunger daily. For many throughout the world they do not have to imagine it. They live it. They suffer as the result of poverty, as the result of civil war, as a result of being uneducated, as a result of land which is difficult to cultivate. The causes vary and so, along with them, do the solutions.
Many people believe that they already do enough by donating a can of soup or maybe a sack of rice, but that is only enough for a meal. There are yet many meals to come. How do we cope with the problem ? Many organizations exist solely for the purpose of alleviating hunger. Attempts have been made to relieve this problem, but they only have created temporary solutions.
We believe that education is the long-term solution. Yet we are aware that children have limited resources to accomplish this task. Those that have access to libraries and the internet must pass the information they find along to other children. We hope that with these ideas, children will realize that they themselves can take action to educate others and thus help feed the world in an attempt to establish lasting food security. It will be a great day when the FOOD FOR ALL Campaign is no longer needed.
EDUCATING AND RAISING AWARENESS
Educating the people is an important part of establishing food security. When people are educated, they will be able to develop their own solutions and thus enable themselves to maintain a steady source of sustenance. Children who have the resources can educate themselves to inform other children who are less fortunate. The following projects model how easy it is for children to take successful action.
Pen-Pals
Communication is the key in spreading knowledge- and that is the exact purpose of this “Pen-Pals” project. Students well educated in the cultivation of land or any other skills will be able to spread their knowledge for the advancement of underdeveloped countries. Interested children in each community could come together to form a club to combine their knowledge and research. They could get addresses from children who attended international summits, sister cities projects, church missionaries or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome. Pen-Pals would allow children to connect on a more personal level, one of friendship, one through love. The problem becomes more of a reality rather than just another hungry mouth to feed.
A Children to Children Teaching Corps
This project takes the “Pen-Pals” project one step further. Children who are fluent in a second language are educated in areas like the importance of nutrition and are sent to the underdeveloped countries to educate people. Organizations like the one founded in the United States called “Amigos” sends students fluent in Spanish to underdeveloped Spanish-speaking countries. This is a project that can be implemented in one‘s own community as well.
The Hem Against Hunger Club
Young people can come together to form a club that will assess problems and research to find solutions like Hem from Nepal. His village needed a dam to have an irrigation system. Hem organized a group of children to do research by speaking to university professors, going to libraries and surfing the internet. They combined their research and made a model which will be presented to the appropriate officials.
Suggested Topics to Teach
1. Nutrition (How to maintain a healthy diet, why certain foods are good for the body, the effects of malnutrition, etc.)
2. Food hygiene
3. Crop rotation
4. Cultivating and harvesting
5. Irrigation
Letters Children Can Write
Excess packaging for food not only raises cost, but is also harmful to the environment. Children can write letters to law makers urging them to pass a tax law on excess packaging. The tax collected would go
towards a program promoting food security.
EASY FOOD FOR ALL PROJECTS
There are many non-profit organizations that have been established to promote food security. Contact your local library, newspaper or chamber of commerce to find out where to find them. Some of these organizations’ efforts have proven to be successful, but in order for them to continue their programs they need funds. Along with the funds, some organizations collect food for the less fortunate. Assisting these organizations will promote the FOOD FOR ALL Campaign.
Cafeteria Project
Most people feel guilty about throwing out food they have not finished. This project would give people the option to pay for the food they throw out. For example, if a student has only eaten half his lunch then he would contribute a designated amount of currency to the cause. The Cafeteria Project can be organized in many different ways. One could collaborate with other schools or can make it a community effort carried into businesses. The money collected can be donated to an existing non-profit group or student project.
Marathon to Raise Awareness
The objective of this project is to raise awareness while, at the same time, raise money. Individuals would collect pledges for every hour they do not eat. The money collected would once again be donated to organizations or a student project dedicated to promoting food security. Participants would also write about how they felt during their hunger period. Then they may publish or submit what they wrote to local newspapers to raise public awareness and inform about the FOOD FOR ALL Campaign.
Hunger Busters
Hunger Busters is a simple idea. In certain ways this idea relates to fasting for a day, but the beauty of this idea is that you only fast for a meal, rather than a certain allotted amount of time. On a designated day students volunteer to give up their lunch. They arrange to have a charity group or some local organization to pick up the uneaten lunches. To raise awareness, during lunch time the children can watch a presentation about promoting food security, nutrition, reducing over-consumption, proper food storage, etc. It would be best for this to be followed up with a discussion of what else children could do to eliminate hunger and participate in the FOOD FOR ALL Campaign.
Planting Trees and Creating Gardens
In countries like Burkina Faso, some of the hardships faced are the lack of rainfall and the barrenness of the land. Planting trees is one solution which will improve the soil and increase rainfall. This idea is so easy that any child, whether or not they are in a country plagued with drought problems, can educate the people on how to plant and maintain trees.
Community gardens are a great way to provide a steady and healthy source of fruits and vegetables. Children can educate the community on how to maintain gardens as well as the nutritional values of a healthy diet. This idea would develop unity between the families living within the community.
CONCLUSION
We have compiled a few simple, creative projects that any child could begin, but we should always be aware of projects that are successfully working and support these projects whether by volunteering or by donating money or food. There are many possibilities for children to help promote and establish food security.
The over 60,000 children involved in the World Summit of Children annual projects are proposing an international assembly of representatives from children’s National Councils to be called the United Nations Young General Assembly. The proposed United Nations Young General Assembly will help to unite children throughout the world to work together towards achieving food security. The proposed United Nations Young General Assembly, the National Councils and also the Hear the Children Day events will draw support for children’s efforts and accomplishments towards eliminating hunger. After all, we children do make up approximately one third of the earth’s population. Once united, we can be an effective catalyst in the effort to establish permanent food security for all.
The Hunger Project booklet Unleashing the Human Spirit contains a quote that we believe contains the key to ending hunger for all time,
“One of the failures of development has been the belief that the way to end hunger is to find a workable solution and replicate it. This fails because the source of the success is human creativity that resulted in the solution, not the solution itself.”
Children are creative. Adults, respect and support us !
APPENDIX:
STATEMENT FROM
THE CHILDREN’S WORLD FOOD SUMMIT DELEGATION
We are children with a vision. Presently children constitute one third of the world’s population. We are the untapped potential of society today and will become the world of tomorrow. If society continues to disempower its children, we all face a devastating future.
We address this statement to you, leaders of the world. You must listen to us if you wish to truly represent us. If we cannot voice our opinions and contribute to the well-being of humankind, where will the future lie ?
We can trust in you only when you have courage and strength of heart. If you were a parent of the whole world, you would love your children. We are your children.
You extended your hand to us in the 1990 World Summit for Children document to promote a global partnership with you for the achievement of common goals. Since then, children have been conferring at national and international levels discussing this partnership. In 1994 the children began annual World Summit of Children (WSOC) projects. As a result, over 42,000 children have been involved in projects to improve their communities in the areas of human and child rights, education, health, environment and the elimination of hunger.
In 1995 the WSOC children decided that they would target the elimination of hunger as their top priority. To establish this partnership and help achieve food security, they proposed:
a) A United Nations Young General Assembly (YGA)- an assembly of child delegates from every country in the world which, as part of the UN, will address children’s problems and act as a first line of communication between children, their governments and the UN;
b) National Councils of children (NCs)- a group of children representing all regions of their nation which will assist their governments in defining children’s problems and suggesting and implementing solutions. Ambassadors from the NCs would comprise the YGA; and
c) Hear the Children Day of Peace (HTC Day)- a day to strengthen communication ties and the partnership between children and adults. By doing so, articles 13 and 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are being preserved and the World Food Summit goals can be promoted.
Considering the establishment of a YGA is not in the immediate future, it is imperative that national governments aid NGOs and children in establishing National Councils as soon as possible. These councils can help governments in implementing the World Food Summit Plan of Action and the Food for All Campaign more economically and efficiently by organizing the nation’s children.
By the time the World Food Summit Plan of Action comes into total effect in approximately five years, children could statistically be one-half of the world’s population. The World Food Summit document groups children with the disadvantaged, particularly needy, socially vulnerable, insecure and infirm. We would like you to remember that children are capable of making decisions along with you in matters of mutual concern.
Rome, Italy
November 10-19, 1996
The 1996 World Summit of Children INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT in Cost Rica elected to have an international delegation of children present in Rome during the November 1996 World Food Summit. This is the statement they were not allowed to speak at the Summit.
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.” Duguet
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