Hunger & Hope

As you may know, many people in the World die because of hunger. Worst of all is that most of dying people are children. What we can do to prevent these deaths? What we can do to prevent hunger globally?

My opinion is that we need to write and talk about this problem. But, we must be headstrong… Many people have never experienced hunger. Here, in Serbia, most of the people know very well what hunger is. I will write you about homeless children in Serbia, non Albanian children from Kosovo and Metohija and children with poor parents…

As you may know, Kosovo and Metohija are trying to be independent state. Kosovo’s government wants to break away from Republic of Serbia. Many states have supported Kosovo independence. But, that’s not so important. I am not politician and I really hate politics. But, I love children and I love justice. On Kosovo for non Albanian children there is no justice. These children live in enclaves without electricity, without money, without toys, without clothes, without food…

What our government does to improve their position? Not too much, to be honest… At least, I think that. I think that we, as society, must do more: it is not much to give each month 1 euro for food, clothes, etc. Sometimes, these children visit Belgrade (capitol of Serbia) and they get some humanitarian help, but that is not much.
These children are not children anymore. They are growing up faster than they should. They think about food and how to earn it and how to find it… very stressful for a child.

On the other hand, we have homeless children here. They are live on the streets. They have run away from their homes because of many reasons (domestic violence, other problems…). Many people do not have sympathy for these kids and they are very rude toward them. But, these kids only need a nice word, a friendly handshake… Instead to help them (buy some food, talk to them, and go with them to institution for homeless children – popularly called here “Hangout for street children”), some people choose to yell on them, even to hit them… Unforgiving, really unforgiving!
Next category of hungry children is children from poor families. These families very often do not have anything: no decent home, no electricity, water… nothing. These families are very often forgotten from our institutions and society… We do not much to help them…

But, hungry children are not just Serbian problem. It’s global problem. Many world wide well known corporation can do a lot, but they do not do much. I do not know why. If I had a lot of money, I would give a part of it for beating hunger. Statistic says that one child dies of hunger every 3 seconds. UN says that each day 18.000 children die of hunger. Can you live peacefully with these facts? I can’t.

We can’t be happy society if we indifferently watch world wide hunger. We can’t say: “In some country in the World someone is hungry. So, what?!? It’s not my problem.” Children are our problem! Children are our responsibility! We must do our best for them! Imagine world without children...

But, imagine world without hunger. It’s pretty nice thought, isn’t it? I think that main task of the 21st century is making healthy and happy global society. Only healthy and happy society can be prosperous. We want to explore universe. That’s ok. But, also we have to exterminate hunger from our planet! Exploring universe is not worth of dying children. Nothing is worth of dying children.

Is there a price for human life? Can we say that human life has a price? What is the price for child’s life? Have we become complete material society? Are we living without compassion in our hearts? I really don’t want to think about these questions… I want to believe that each person on planet Earth want to fight against hunger and want to do his/hers best to exterminate it.

Maybe I’m idealist. But, I’m sure that I’m not only one. I really hope (and I know) that there are many people like I am. I really hope and pray that we will make difference. I hope we will exterminate hunger and each child on this planet will grow up in wealthy and happy environment without thinking about next meal…

Please, everyone, do what you can, do your best, do anything for our children; because, each child on this planet is our child.