Let’s see a Hunger free Pakistan as imagined by young children

Intensifying food shortages across the globe are creating nightmarish situations for countries in the developing world like Pakistan, and the new reality, with increasing inflation, rampant hoarding, lack of water, dearth of harvesting land and mismanagement of crops, have made matters worse.

Pakistan is an agricultural country; more than 70% of its population lives in the villages and work the land. Pakistan’s Sindh and Punjab province are famous for wheat and rice production, and this area has been fulfilling the needs of the whole country for all these years, with surplus wheat and rice being exported. There are still those farmers and there are still those lands, but the problem now is that conflicts, natural disasters and devastating floods that swamped one-fifth of the country have also pushed millions of people into hunger. It may take years before the agricultural sector gets back on track.

Erratic weather patterns have also destroyed many homes and farms. Droughts and floods, for example, have decreased crop harvests by up to 50% in the last three years.

According to data from the World Food Program, 77 million Pakistanis—nearly half the country's total population—are food insecure, while 95 of Pakistan's 121 districts face problems such as hunger and malnutrition-related disease. Last year, a UNICEF report concluded that half of all child deaths in Pakistan could be attributed to poor nutrition.

Recently, I had a tremendous opportunity to interview children about hunger, to be used for World Vision’s hunger free campaign, targeting the G8 and G20.

I visited Abdullah Shah village in Tehsil Pannu Akil, in Sindh province of Pakistan. This village was badly hit by flooding in 2010 and remained surrounded by water for almost 12 months after, resembling an island. The people lost everything: houses, belongings, their ready-to-harvest crops (maize, pulses, onion and other lady fingers), livestock; all were lost. They took refuge on the “Baig loop Bund” and stayed there for over a month without even a change of clothes. During all that time they lived under the open sky in rain and sun and relied on outside assistance for shelter, food and protection from diseases.

World Vision has helped the community of this village for almost two years now, since the flooding. World Vision has established various early recovery projects to help strengthen the livelihood of the people.

There is no school in the village, the nearest being 1.5 km away in Soomra, and even if there was one many families would not have been able to send their children to one, because they cannot afford to do so.

World Vision established a Child Protection Centre (CPC) after last year’s floods in this village to provide children with a secure and friendly environment to play and learn through informal education. The Centre is not only providing informal education to the children but has also helped raise awareness about health and hygiene and child rights, making them less prone to child protection issues such as child abuse, discrimination and neglect, said Jamal Shah, World Vision’s Child Protection Coordinator in Sukkur.

So with all these facts I decided to interview these children in order to gather examples – in spoken words and drawing – that will show children’s thoughts, feelings, opinions and hopes for lives free from hunger.

I stated my conversation by asking about hunger in their community. They recalled the miserable memories of floods and said, “We lived on a hope of others to feed us as we lost all we had and people and many organizations like World Vision came and helped us in those devastating days.”

Then I asked them to write statements for each of the following questions

• What would you be doing if you weren’t hungry?
• What would life be like if you weren’t hungry?
• What do you need to stop being hungry?
• What would you eat, if you could choose from any food?
• What would you – and your friends do – if you had too much food?
• If you had control over all the world’s food, what would you do?
• If you had as much food as you needed, what would you feed your friends and family?
• What are the bad things about being hungry?
• What food would you eat at a feast?

I got striking answers from the young children of Pakistan; here are their replies:

• What would you be doing if you weren’t hungry?

That life would have been the best life. We could have progressed more. We would have got better education. We would have helped others.

• What would life be like if you weren’t hungry?

Life would have been prospering, better, full of happiness.

• What do you need to stop being hungry?

We should do labour and hard work to end the hunger, we should work collectively [were the answers given by majority of children].

• What would you eat, if you could choose from any food?

Lady fingers, Chicken, Biryani (rice), bread, ice cream, apple, cold drink, mango, banana, water, juice, orange, guava, watermelon, fish [were the choices made by children].

• What would you – and your friends do – if you had too much food?

We shall save it for using it in miserable time, only eat as much as we shall be needing, give it to other needy people [were the responses of children].

• If you had control over all of the world’s food, what would you do?

Distribute to needy and poor people, share it with others, will give to those who can’t afford to have three times meal, will distribute in places where there is shortage of food.

• If you had as much food as you needed, what would you feed your friends and family?

Milk, Roti (bread), rice, vegetables, tea, pulses.

• What are the bad things about being hungry?

It makes you helpless, cannot take care of family, lot of pain, it repels you to go for wrong deeds, makes you worry, you lose all your friends and relatives, people can think about suicide.

• What food would you eat at a feast?

Meat, sweets, chicken, desserts, biryani (rice)

Next, I asked them how would you use art to raise awareness about hunger? I gave them following scenarios:

• What would life be like if you weren’t hungry?

• What would eat, if you could choose from any food?

• If you had as much food as you needed, what would you feed your friends and family?

I received so many inspirational pieces that showcased how children are imagining a hunger-free future. Here’s the story behind one of those young artists, Aqsa.

Aqsa believes that art is a great way to express your thoughts. She’s 14 years old. When she heard about drawing she was the first who stood up and said, “I’ll draw a scenario depicting the life if we’re not hungry.” She took the opportunity to use her artistic talent to express her view on how hunger could be solved.

Her vision for a huger-free world inspired how she created her piece.

“I've designed a path leading to an equal world. Children going to schools, rivers flowing smoothly and we are cultivating green lands from those rivers, a good government, a fair redistribution of resources, social justice, we shall arrive to a fair and better world,” she said, describing her artwork. “I imagine many happy people living in the house, all accepting one another.

“I was so saddened to see the people walking miles to go to camps and waiting for help and food during flood,” she said. “We sometimes waited so long to eat food.”

“We can all make Pakistan beautiful as I have imagined and expressed in my drawing,” she said.

These are empowering examples of how young people are imagining a hunger-free future and working to make it a reality.

End.