FRAGILE HOPE

“Mr. Daryl Crowden, please make yourself known to the Emirates service desk at departure gate 11”. I was just about to board Emirates flight EK407, that 13.5 hour non-stop flight from Melbourne to Dubai. And this, this was the announcement that births a glimmer of hope deep in the soul – albeit unfounded and highly unlikely – but nevertheless a pleading hope that this was the day, this was the flight. I approached the desk telling myself, don’t get your hopes up, it never happens, but still a small candle of hope had been lit.

“Mr. Crowden? We forgot to give you a meal voucher when you checked in!” Not only was it not the hoped for upgrade, but it was just rubbing salt in the wounds – not only do you not get an upgrade, but by the way you have such a long layover in Dubai that we will give you a free meal at McDonalds (just one of the choices).

The insignificance and obscenity of my hope ashamed me as I sat listening to my colleagues in Nairobi. They were providing me with an update on the unfolding crisis in South Sudan where over 200 people have been killed; the drought affecting 10.2 Million people in Ethiopia; the increasing capacity of Al Shabaab to terrorise Somalia and neighbours; the increasing displacement of people from Burundi. And armed with that knowledge what was my response?

The idea of hope haunted my thinking. As I sat listening to one catastrophe, created by humanity, after another, I wondered where, if, there is hope in these contexts? Do the people of Juba (South Sudan) hope anymore, or have they given in to despair? Can the people in Ethiopia hope for food, can they imagine a day when the kids are not hungry?

Hope is fragile, it can be dashed in a second by powers outside our control - and yet it is the one thing that, where it can be found, has the power to sustain life and overcome reality. I have seen this illogical hope in so many faces and places.

As I begin my work this week in Kenya, and next week in Ethiopia – I can imagine what I will see and hear – but I hope that I will see a flicker of the candle of hope burning in the eyes of the people, and I pray that in some small way I can tend that flame of hope.

Bringing Hope to Drought Stricken Children

The prolonged lack of rain and resultant shortage of water in western Afghanistan over the past couple of rain seasons has triggered stress and livelihood shock in the farming communities of Badghis district. Because of this ongoing drought, farmers have had to delay planting seasons each year, but the continued low rainfall during the growing season of 2011 meant that the majority of the wheat crop failed. This failure has had a devastating effect on the people and one which threatens to impact on the communities for years to come.

A need assessment survey conducted in July 2011 identified a number of concerns, including:

• water sources are drying out
• there is a decline in school attendance because children are needing to contribute to the family income by working so that they can eat
• there is a high infant mortality and morbidity rate: (in Afghanistan), more than 40% of child deaths are due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection
• water sources are unprotected and contain unsafe water
• people do not know how, and are not purifying unsafe water

 In order to break the negative impacts of these annual droughts, existing natural water sources need to be protected, well-placed water catchments need to be built and irrigation structures need to be enhanced.

But establishing new potable water infrastructure will not improve health indicators without complementary behaviour change training. Working at a grass-root level through Afghan health workers it is hoped that we can encourage preventive health measures by integrating hand washing and hygiene practices, promoting exclusive breast-feeding, and introducing water purification treatments.

The people of Badghis province are primarily agrarian; for centuries their communities have been dependent upon agriculture. By diversifying these community’s sources of income through the introduction of new cash crops and income generating activities, it is hoped that their level of food security can be enhanced.

This community-based approach: (partnering with existing community management structures, identifying and building on existing human and social capacity) seeks to address the malnutrition and promote healthy behaviours by enabling families to sustain the rescue of malnourished children at home by identifying affordable, acceptable, effective and sustainable practices that are already used by at-risk people and that do not conflict with local culture.

By these initiatives, we are aiming to participate in the recovery and stabilization of rural communities in Badghis, halt the increase of child mortality, diversify the crops and increase the household incomes, introduce risk reduction mechanisms, and bring hope to people suffering from the effects of prolonged and recurrent drought.

This is what severe malnutrition looks like: a compelling photograph by World Vision (US) photographer Jon Warren has become the picture of the Horn of Africa response.

Mr Warren visited Puntland - an area in Somalia that has not received much coverage in the news but one where hungry people are flowing. In this picture, he captured a moment that is reflective of both great need and great hope. The image shows Layla Mohamed, 23, holding her severely malnourished one year old son, Zam Zam. Layla fled the Mogadishu conflict with her husband and children to Puntland in the north, but now finds herself fighting to save her baby.

If you think you can spare some money to help, why not go to World Vision Australia's Horn of Africa Drought Appeal web page and make a difference.

The Triangle of Death

I recently read a speech by the Dalai Lama in which he suggested that most of the world's problems are caused by religious preciousness (my phrase not his). Today about 10 Million people are starving because of the protectionist agenda of a religious militant group who display a gollumesque preciousness that makes adherents seem as ugly as Tolkien's selfish creature.

An anti-foreign agenda that orders people to starve rather than seek assistance is not a mandate of Islam. I think that all my Muslim friends would denounce this as violently, if not more, than I do. We have the capacity to feed the hungry, heal the sick, transform our world, but whilst religious groups (Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu etc, all of whose sacred texts speak of love, compassion, care and acceptance) are more concerned with protecting their own precious agendas we will continue to see this kind of evil abuse which results usually in the suffering of the least powerful - whilst the 'fanatics' keep up their strength for the fight.

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MOGADISHU, July 22 (Reuters: Ibrahim Mohamed) - Islamist rebels in Somalia - who control the parts of the country where famine was declared this week - have said aid agencies they expelled from those areas last year cannot return, reversing a previous pledge.

The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants imposed a ban on food aid in 2010, which the U.N. and Washington say has worsened the crisis, before appearing to reverse it last week.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) was among several groups ordered out of rebel areas which are now preparing to return, describing the situation in Somalia as "extremely dire".

The United Nations told Reuters it had not heard about any new position from the rebels and planned to take last week's pledge at face value and push ahead with food shipments by air and sea.

Al Shabaab had promised to allow relief agencies with "no hidden agendas" greater access to their territory.

"The so-called aid agencies that were already banned and named are not part of the agencies we free to work in al Shabaab areas," al Shabab spokesman, Ali Mohamud Raghe, told a news conference late on Thursday in a rebel-held part of capital Mogadishu.

"They had problems with people and had a hidden agenda. We shall also expel any agency that causes problems for Muslim society," he added, urging hungry Somalis to stay in their homes and wait for the rain to come rather than going to foreign-run refugee camps.

Some 10 million people are affected by famine and drought in a region, dubbed the "triangle of death" by local media, that straddles Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.