Wednesday 20 July 2011

Horn of Africa

Having an early tea in one of my favourite Lake District pubs this afternoon, my daughter and I could not overhear a customer complaining about her food - she had ordered a plain baguette but I think she was served with a filled baguette.  She flung her arms into the air and screached "what is this?!", she promptly told the waiter he could do her a big favour by "going to the kitchen and getting her what she asked for".
As I was tucking into an oversized cheese and pickle baguette, accompanied by homemade chips and coleslaw, I could not help but be reminded of how incredibly lucky we are in this country to have food at our disposable, unlike our sisters in Africa.

Kenya, 2011: Somali children and women refugees await food and other assistance at a camp near the town of Dadaab. They are among more than 10 million people in five Horn of Africa countries affected by the worst drought in 60 years. An estimated 480,000 malnourished children are at risk of dying, and an additional 1.6 million children are at risk. UNICEF urgently needs US $31.8 million to support response programmes in four of the most affected countries for the next three months.
If you haven't done so already, you can make a donation here - www.unicef.org

2 comments:

  1. I work for an NGO that works with rural women in South Africa one of my colleagues was telling me about a women she interviewed yesterday who lives in a mud hut and is pregnant with her eighth child, her husband has other wives and she battles to feed her kids. Yes, a big reality check! And I go home and moan about my noisy neighbors in my lovely big brick house.

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  2. I found your lovely blog through Clare above. Yes, I agree with you. We must be more conscious of giving rather than complaining of our lot in life, Especially when we who live with plenty complain about the weather, our jobs, our nosy so and so's...

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