Dreaming Big to End Hunger and Poverty
This week, World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty reminded us of the two most daunting global challenges we have yet to overcome – world hunger and extreme poverty. Although every organization has its unique mission, its niche issue, essentially we are all working towards the same goal: to empower people to meet their basic needs in a dignified manner, a life free of poverty. With more and more charities looking to expand and develop their charitable efforts in Africa, we're hoping this will start to make some sort of impact on poverty in Africa. Some charities may be similar to us, in that we may confine ourselves to our particular issue without taking a moment to reflect more broadly on the other factors that contribute to that issue. For example, to end world hunger, some programs may focus on strengthening agricultural production, actually increasing the amount of food we grow and distribute. Other programs may consider income generation opportunities so people have the money to buy food. Yet, if we widen our scope just a little bit more, if we zoom out from the situation, we will find that early childhood education is the foundation to build a foundation to solving world hunger and poverty. By putting three and four-year-olds in school, we will reach them during their most formative years and foster a life-long commitment to education. With the knowledge they acquire from school, they will make healthier decisions and look towards building a career that will secure their future and the future of their families.
At Seeds of Africa, our focus is education, but we realize that in order to give children and their parents the best education possible, we have to broaden our perspective and alleviate some of their burden. We offer all of our programs for free. We provide food subsidies to families so children aren’t hungry when they come to school, and older children won’t have to quit school to work. We give the students new uniforms every year so they can feel proud and included, and parents can use that money on other household necessities. We give workshops on health issues such as personal hygiene, nutrition, common childhood illnesses, malaria, and HIV/AIDS and provide free health screenings so children can come to school healthy and ready to work.Our vision for our students is broad and long-term—it is a vision for their entire future as well as the future of their community. We see early childhood education to university education as investments into the community’s health, which has an impact on the entire country. Our scope is large because we believe everything is connected. We dream big because we believe we can transform the economic destiny of Adama, then Ethiopia, then Africa.The 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, the ambitious global movement to endpoverty, is quickly approaching, and the global community is talking about what will happen beyond 2015. Now, there is talk of launching sustainable development goals, with sustainability—lasting social, economic, and environmental balance—being the key word. Sustainability requires vision, a broadened, all-inclusive perspective of our global challenges. For us, sustainability starts when children are very young, when they thrive on learning and absorb every aspect of their environment, and sustainability extends toward their families, making sure we have their support, making sure we invest in their education as well. And finally, sustainability implies the commitment of the community. Our hope is that our students, their parents and Seeds staff will involve the community in endeavors that will ultimately eradicate poverty.Already, we’ve seen our school grow from a few after-school students in a backyard garden to 75 students and 25 parents in a full-time, permanent facility.We are going to build a “Dream School” that will educate 600 pre-schoolers to 8th graders. We know that our innovative curriculum and community development programs make a real and enduring impact. We are growing Seeds, showing them love and care, and they will flourish into leaders that will do the same. We invest in people, and we hope you will invest in us too.Want to make the Dream School come true? Seeds of Africa has a chance to earn a $250,000 Chase Mission Main Street Grant, but we need your vote to be eligible. Vote for us TODAY!We hope you will take a moment to share this with your friends and family!BY: HUGH SMITH