Blog # 10

The topic that I have chosen that is important to me is hunger in Africa. I have been to Malawi, Africa on a mission trip a couple of summers ago, and it broke my heart to see the conditions that they were having to live in. Most of the children had swollen bellies that made it obvious that they were malnurished. There weren't very many people that you came across that looked physically healthy. They all were hungry.

Since my trip to Africa, I have been very concerned with what can be done to help them. I realize its a long and tuff process, but no one needs it more than they do. Thats why I chose this topic to write about. When I looked on the internet for an organization that was working on these issues I came across many organizations that are trying to end hunger in Africa. These organizations include USAID, IEHA (Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in Africa), and CAADP (The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program). USAID pretty much makes it possible for these organizations to do what they do. They create the partnerships with Africa. The IEHA pretty much goes to Africa and helps them with their agriculture. They are helping change the farming industry to be successful. Their goal is to cut the number of hungry people in Africa in half by 2015. On their website, I thought it was really neat to see that Malawi was just recently added to IEHA in 2008.

I know that this issue will take lots of time to fix, but it is encouraging to see that people are working on it.

In the F Word, on page 185 I thought this statement was interesting. "What made you think that you could wake up in the morning and have all these wonderful rights adn priveleges--jobs, schools, sex--and enjoy the hard-won freedoms that women before you passed and not have to pay for it? Those rights were gained through electoral activity, not by a miracle." This statement interested me, because I never really thought about it this way. But I do agree with Reuss when she says it. Now days women just take for grantid what early feminists gained for us, including me! Even if all we do today is just be faithful to vote, we can make a difference. Although that is almost asking too much from us today. It just opened my eyes to not only taking lightly the freedoms that early women won for us, but also the freedoms that everyone enjoys.