BGR Responds to Horn of Africa Drought Crisis With Emergency Aid

Posted on April 25, 2023 by | Comments Off on BGR Responds to Horn of Africa Drought Crisis With Emergency Aid

By Charles Elliott

Mumina Afyarow is a 29-year-old widow and mother of three. Because of malnutrition, she has no milk left to breastfeed her infant daughter. The drought killed her beloved donkey and goats, which were her family’s only source of income and food. So, Mumina left her village of Garasweyn and walked eleven miles with her children on her back to a displacement camp. But the camp doesn’t have enough basic supplies to care for everyone, so Mumina sold the only bucket she had for $1.50 to buy food. (Action Against Hunger, February 2023, Proposal to Buddhist Global Relief)

This sorrowful story, like a thousand others, emerges from the Horn of Africa as it faces its worst drought in forty years. In the past three years, this region has suffered five failed rainy seasons, and meteorologists predict a sixth in the coming months. Climate change is likely influencing these conditions. Across the region, more than 36 million people are threatened by the drought, with its predictable catastrophic consequences: the death of 9.5 million livestock, the drying up of the wells upon which human survival depends, the spread of disease, the migration of untold numbers of people desperate for food and water, and the terrible toll of human suffering and death.

In response to this unfolding tragedy, Buddhist Global Relief is partnering with five international organizations to provide emergency relief in the Horn of Africa: Action Against Hunger, CARE, Oxfam, UNICEF, and the U.N. World Food Programme. This assistance is targeted to reach the populations in the region most severely impacted by hunger.

UNICEF proposal to Buddhist Global Relief for Horn of Africa relief funding.

SOMALIA
Action Against Hunger reports that Somalia faces the worst levels of acute food insecurity since the reporting of malnutrition rates began. Approximately half of all Somalis are facing food insecurity and 8.3 million are already at imminent risk. Since last year, there has been a 52 percent increase in nutrition admissions to stabilization centers and 1.8 million children are likely to suffer acute wasting from malnutrition by July 2023. As of the first quarter of 2023, almost 40 percent of Somalis are acutely food insecure, and 320,000 face catastrophic hunger with a risk of famine (IPC5), the most severe and life-threatening classification of hunger. Drought conditions and violent conflict displaced 1.6 million people in Somalia between January and October last year. During the same period, the number of children admitted for treatment for severe wasting increased by 67 percent compared to 2021.

ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia continues to be hard hit by drought. Its population is facing exceptionally high levels of hunger due to the five consecutive failed rainy seasons. The compounding impacts of multiple crises that confront these people include drought, localized floods, and a two-year running armed conflict that exacerbates the causes of malnutrition. In just the past three years, the number of people in Ethiopia needing food assistance has almost tripled, from 8.4 million in 2020 to 24.1 million in 2023. Nearly three-quarters are women and children.

The majority of the population in the Somali, Oromia, Sidama, and Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ regions rely on pastoralism, one of the most ancient forms of subsistence living. Without water, their animals die, depriving these families of their only source of income. Some four million livestock are believed to have died due to the current drought conditions; millions more are very weak and emaciated with no or little milk production – the primary source of nutrition for children. Meteorologists predict below-average rain for this coming spring rainy season – perhaps no rain at all – shattering all hope of relief.

These conditions also impair education and threaten the future of hundreds of thousands of children. Two thousand schools have closed due to drought, affecting 648,000 students as families are displaced or can no longer afford school fees. It’s estimated that an additional 4,558 schools are at high risk of closure.

KENYA
The failure of the past five rainy seasons has forced Kenya to declare a national disaster. Nearly a million Kenyan children already suffer from acute malnutrition and are in urgent need of life-saving treatment. Across the country, 3.1 million people face acute hunger and the country is suffering a 70 percent drop in crop production.

SOUTH SUDAN

In South Sudan, the promise of a better life following its attainment of independence has disappeared. Ten years after the ostensible end of the civil war, the country has plummeted into an unprecedented hunger emergency. This year almost 8 million people – about 63 percent of the population – will probably face crisis levels of food insecurity. As a result of limited funds and rising costs, three out of four households in crisis are unlikely to receive any food aid. Without a scale-up of food and nutrition assistance, and without unhindered humanitarian access, parts of the country risk famine. Inadequate funding for safe water and sanitation is contributing to outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.

CARE has declared a Type 4 crisis in South Sudan – the most severe on its emergency scale – and urgently sought funds for lifesaving food and nutrition assistance. Funds are also needed to address poor water quality and supply, sanitation, and hygiene.

“Eleven-month-old baby Chigoah Gai has just been admitted to the inpatient therapeutic feeding program supported by CARE in Bentiu hospital. He is frail, struggling for breath, with his tiny ribs showing. A clear case of severe acute malnutrition. His grandmother looks worried. Baby Gai has been vomiting and had diarrhea for the past six days. He weighs just 4.6 kg. (10 lb., 2 oz.). Unprecedented flooding forced his family from their home and meant they couldn’t get enough to eat or clean drinking water, causing him to deteriorate. His grandmother says, ‘The baby was used to milk but now all cattle have moved very far away. I sometimes give him goat’s milk but it’s not enough. The baby’s mother left him behind after seeing that we don’t have enough food to eat. She left to look for something, but she never came back. I don’t know where she is.’”

In recent months South Sudan’s precarious humanitarian situation has worsened. Violence and conflict persist; the country faces a sharp increase in food and fuel prices, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Climate shocks create the worst of both worlds: localized flooding and drought. An estimated 2 million people, including 1.3 million children under the age of 5 and 676,000 pregnant and lactating women, are expected to be at risk of acute malnourishment. Especially in internally-displaced persons camps and settlements, infectious disease outbreaks are contributing to an ongoing rise in morbidity.

Buddhist Global Relief responded to these terrible conditions by inviting its five NGO partners to submit proposals for emergency funding. Each of these organizations – esteemed for their regional expertise, resources, and rapid-response capabilities – provided BGR with proposals that identified the most effective way to utilize our contributions in addressing these interrelated crises:

• $50,000 to Action Against Hunger’s water and food security emergency responses in Somalia, which incorporates the provision of water vouchers, sanitation services, and hygiene kits as well as direct cash assistance, cash for work programs, livelihood inputs, and financial support provided via micro enterprises and Village Savings and Loan Associations.
• $50,000 to CARE’s nutrition emergency response in South Sudan, which includes screening and treatment of children suffering from malnutrition; CARE’s food security emergency response includes food/cash distribution to the most vulnerable households (restricted, unconditional cash) as well as distribution of agricultural and vegetable kits.
• $50,000 to Oxfam America’s crisis response in Ethiopia, which focuses on food security, including in-kind food distributions and unconditional cash transfers so basic needs can be met; distribution of seeds and tools; and rehabilitation of water systems.
• $50,000 to UNICEF’s emergency programs throughout the Horn of Africa. Addressing household water insecurity is the core driver of UNICEF’s regional drought response in 2023. Additionally, UNICEF’s support of critical nutrition activities includes: (1) procurement, prepositioning, and distribution of therapeutic supplies for children; (2) support for the prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition; and (3) promotion of appropriate nutritional support for mothers, infants, and young children.
• $100,000 to the U.N. World Food Programme’s drought response plan in Somalia, which has been providing relief food assistance to 4.4 million beneficiaries each month. WFP has 12 offices in Somalia and works in partnership with over 100 cooperating partners (85 percent local NGOs) and over 1,490 food retailers across the country.

These grants, totaling $300,000, collectively represent the largest emergency donations package for Africa in the history of Buddhist Global Relief. Each of these partners has committed to providing BGR with reporting sufficient for us to be accountable to our donors and to provide our supporters with appropriate information about the efforts these funds are supporting.

We are deeply thankful to each and every person who has supported BGR’s work, and we are grateful for each and every donation. Each supporter and each donation directly contributes to our efforts to reduce suffering. Recalling once again the Buddha’s statement that “hunger is the worst illness,” BGR’s leadership, staff, and volunteers remain grateful for these opportunities to help those in need.

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Quiet Strength in the Face of Might: The Courage of the University Women of Afghanistan

Posted on December 19, 2022 by | Comments Off on Quiet Strength in the Face of Might: The Courage of the University Women of Afghanistan

By Ayyā Dhammadīpā

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, it seemed that all the world was watching with apprehension and deep concern. We were concerned that Afghans might have to endure worsening economic conditions and rising poverty, an escalation of violence, and a return to a society defined by an oppressive theocracy. All of that has come to pass, and perhaps none suffer more than girls and young women of school age. 

Stock photo image by Amber Clay from Pixabay.

The de facto government in Afghanistan, which had already made it illegal for girls to attend middle school and high school in March 2022, declared gyms and parks also off limits to women in November. Ironically, this took place on the same day that the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the Taliban to desist from violating the human rights of Afghan women and girls, and demanding that they lead the country out of the “dire social conditions” that currently prevail.

However, there is one aspect of life in which Afghan women still have agency, and that is university education. The Taliban has wisely opted to allow women to pursue higher education, and to complete their studies if they were already enrolled. Thus, the women continue to attend classes, even as their lives become more and more circumscribed by limitations on their movements and activities.

To support the women who are taking up this precious opportunity, BGR has partnered with CARE to contribute funding to the University Scholarship Initiative for a second year. CARE has a significant and ongoing presence in Khost province, the area of Afghanistan where the university women’s initiative is operating, and CARE’s activities include projects providing emergency relief, education, and livelihood support.

The University Scholarship Initiative began in 2012 to provide next steps for girls who had participated in CARE’s Lower Secondary Community-based Education project, which enabled girls to pursue their middle and high school education with trained teachers in private homes. One of the teachers both trained and employed by CARE in the community-based program describes her motivation this way:

Girls … should be able to earn their own income. Knowledge is power. If they have knowledge, they will be strong people and help other people–they can reduce the misery of others. There would be brightness in the community.

CARE’s University Scholarship Initiative is assisting young women so that they can graduate with university and technical degrees. This initiative has assisted hundreds of young women, and recipients are chosen from the community because of their great need. The Initiative selects recipients using four main criteria: 1) academic performance; 2) financial need; 3) orphaned students; and 4) students with special needs.

This project currently provides funds for the college education of 124 Afghan women, and an additional 71 young women are new to the program this year. Funding from Buddhist Global Relief is supporting 38 of these courageous young women. Each of them receives support for education-related costs, including transportation, textbooks, and university fees. They are receiving education in their chosen fields, which include medicine, nursing, midwifery, stomatology (oral medicine), and law. And they are succeeding.

CARE’s University Scholarship Initiative has enabled hundreds of women to graduate, including 12 who graduated this past year. Graduates are finding work that pays more than they could possibly hope to obtain without a degree. Working in their respective fields, graduates of the Initiative not only contribute to the well-being of their families and Afghan society, but also become beacons of hope for girls and women in a country where hope is hard to come by. Even as Afghanistan is hit with waves of rising food insecurity, drought, and economic contraction, these young women are improving their lives and the lives of those around them.

In their application for the project support this year, CARE wrote: 

Shifts in traditional social and gender norms are likely to be the strongest legacy of BGR’s investment in Scholarships. Sustainable changes are already visible in the consistent demand of communities for girls’ education, as demonstrated by high attendance rates, graduation rates and success finding jobs. These results are a tangible demonstration of the broader social change taking place in targeted villages, where girls’ voices and contributions are valued, sought and invested in.

However, we at BGR and the staff and volunteers of CARE recognize that this project is not without risk. In recognition of this risk, in this blog post we are not sharing images of the women or the locations of their schools (the image featured above is a stock photo). There are people in Afghanistan who strongly, sometimes violently, oppose women’s education, and we are doing what we can to protect these students from any reprisals against them. It takes a tremendous amount of courage for these women simply to go about quietly attending classes, studying, and learning. For women who live under oppression, quiet strength is the most powerful strength of all. In fact, history has shown that quiet strength can move entire nations and can change millions of lives for the better.

CARE and BGR continue to provide funding for the women so that they can pursue their college degrees. We at BGR feel honored to support these young women in their studies, and we look forward to a long, fruitful relationship with them through CARE. We admire the women’s quiet strength, and we want them to know that we share their hopes for a future in which Afghan girls and women can participate fully in an educated Afghan society and in the world.

Ayyā Dhammadīpā is a BGR Board member and the founder of the Dassanāya Buddhist Community in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a fully ordained bhikkhuni in the Theravāda tradition and a Dharma Heir in Soto Zen. In addition to English, Ayyā teaches in Spanish, an expression of her Latin heritage.

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The Power of the Dhamma: Turning a Little into a Lot

Posted on November 14, 2022 by | Comments Off on The Power of the Dhamma: Turning a Little into a Lot

By David Braughton

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the suffering we witness daily, especially the suffering of persons who already literally live hand-to-mouth. Whenever tragedy arises—natural disasters, political unrest, armed conflicts, crop failures, pandemics, economic downturns—the world’s poor are the ones most directly affected. It is as if circumstances are conspiring to take away whatever semblance of hope they cling to, whatever shred of dignity they still maintain, indeed, whatever desperate ties to life they still claim. 

Photo courtesy of BGR partner Lotus Outreach International

I recall several years ago walking through the mud-rutted streets of Cité Soleil, an extremely impoverished community on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The black flies swarmed incessantly among the raw sewage that flowed in shallow ditches crisscrossing the fields of windowless, cement huts.  The children of parents who are little more than children themselves played on heaps of garbage, running between the crumbled buildings and the numerous shelters made from tarps that many called home. More than anything, Cité Soleil depicts a world that seemingly doesn’t care, a world that would allow so many innocent lives to be wasted in such utter misery. I have been to other slums, like those surrounding Mumbai in India, where my experience was much the same. 

When we survey the desperation and squalor that constitutes the lives of so many people, it is difficult to imagine how any act of kindness on our part, any gift of money, time, or talent can make a difference. Yet, it is often here, among the most abject living conditions and impoverishment, that the transformative power of the Dhamma is most evident. The fact that our gifts, no matter how modest, can ensure that a hungry child eats a nutritious meal, or a family has clean drinking water or a young woman can escape societal chains and make her own future, or a dry-land farmer can learn how to grow enough food both to feed her family and sell the surplus at the market, is testimony to the Buddha’s central teaching that suffering is not the final word, that compassion, born of loving-kindness and equanimity, is an essential step in the liberation of others and ourselves as well. 

I reflect on the Lotus Outreach Garden of Peace Project, an oasis of progressive education in Tamil Nadu, India, where for the past four years BGR has provided two meals daily to 174 school-age children whose parents are subsistence farmers or who work at the brick kilns or in construction as daily wage laborers. According to staff reports, the children who take part in the Garden of Peace Project are healthier than their counterparts in the Tamil Nadu community and their families are better off because now they have more food for the rest of the household. The cost: $2.60 per child per day.  

At first, I marvel and wonder if what I’m reading is correct. How is it possible to supply two meals for so little? For $2.60 I can’t even buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, much less a gallon of gas. Then I realize that it is the power of the Dhamma—manifesting in the compassion of the people who run the school feeding program and their supporters—that makes such extraordinary feats possible. 

I also reflect on Helen Keller International’s clean water project in central and southern Senegal. With BGR’s financial support, Helen Keller International is able to supply clean drinking water and clean water for crop irrigation to five villages, enriching the lives of nearly 5,000 people. When I think about how many people are infected by dysentery primarily for the lack of clean water, over 100 million annually, and how many people die as a result, over a million each year, I am amazed at what this project is accomplishing. Where before people drank contaminated water, cooked and bathed in contaminated water, and irrigated their crops with contaminated water, how different these people’s lives will be. And the cost: less than $4.60 per recipient!

What is so remarkable about the transformative power of the Dhamma, manifested in compassion and generosity, is that it is not only the recipient who is blessed, but the giver, you and me, as well. Certainly, through our gifts we gain merit. In one of my favorite suttas the Buddha is asked whether only gifts to his followers produce merit. He answers: “I say that one acquires merit even if one throws away dishwashing water in a refuse dump or cesspit with the thought: ‘May the living beings here sustain themselves with this!’ How much more, then, [does one acquire merit] when one gives to human beings!” (Anguttara Nikaya 3:57)

But the giving of gifts blesses us in another way: this simple act causes us to turn away from a preoccupation with self, away from thoughts of “mine, this is what I am, myself” to thoughts of others, their suffering, their needs. As such, giving slowly erodes our attachment to self, to the roots of our own suffering, to lust and aversion, both fed by the delusion that somehow, someday, I will get enough, be enough, do enough to be truly happy and fulfilled! Rather than seeing the world from the futile vantage point of self and self-interest, the activity of giving empowers us to embrace hope. 

It is easy to be overwhelmed by suffering and to despair that I can make a difference. That is, until we gain confidence in the power of the Dhamma to transform our generosity into two meals a day for an impoverished child living in Tamil Nadu or into clean water to drink and grow crops in Senegal. Until we realize that there is a universal law, the Dhamma, supporting us and magnifying our meager efforts into what is truly good and life-changing.

For some of us, $2.60 may be all we can spare, given our earnings and responsibilities to our families. Others are able to give much more. By giving whatever you can give, not only will you cast a stone at despair, but you will also hasten your own journey toward true liberation, toward a happiness, peace, and fulfillment that truly lasts.

David Braughton is the vice-chair of Buddhist Global Relief. David has worked in human services for over 40 years in fields related to a range of human needs including refugee resettlement, employment, and youth services. He has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago.

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Creating a food oasis in an urban food desert: Easton Urban Farm

Posted on November 6, 2022 by | Comments Off on Creating a food oasis in an urban food desert: Easton Urban Farm

By Charles Elliott

Supported by BGR grants since 2018, the Easton Urban Farm (EUF) is a remarkable success story, providing fresh produce to low-income urban residents who struggle to afford basic necessities.  Located in the City of Easton, a small historic town nestled within Eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, EUF serves an often marginalized population facing financial pressure from high rent increases, inflated food and gas prices, and reductions in governmental assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps). Access to fresh fruits and vegetables is limited in Easton’s Southside and West Ward “food desert” neighborhoods, and the EUF helps fill this gap with its food pantry and direct distribution of fresh produce within the community.

The EUF is a program of the Easton Area Neighborhood Center, a non-profit organization serving area residents since 1967, whose mission is advancing social and economic justice and advocating for the rights of residents with limited resources. In addition to its food assistance, the Neighborhood Center offers a transitional housing program for homeless and “near homeless” families, and rental and utility assistance.

With help from BGR grants and the farm’s excellent stewardship of the land, EUF has dramatically increased its yield from 6,500 pounds of fresh produce in 2019 to more than 11,000 pounds (!) in 2021 on its 5/8 acre farm. Fresh and nutritious food is grown with organic practices, without chemical inputs.

The program year starts early in the year, in February, with an annual community “seed swap” that encourages community cohesion and recruitment of new volunteers.  The farm soil is prepared for planting, and seedlings are planted as early as weather permits. The day-to-day farming work is performed by volunteers, guided by a skilled master gardener. The master gardener not only guides the work of the farm but provides training in best practices for residents who want to create their own vegetable gardens to supplement their food supply at low cost. 

The early crops are ready for harvest by late April, and this produce is offered to area residents through the Center’s food pantry. From mid-June to mid-August, the farm’s produce is distributed through multiple outlets: Lafayette College’s Vegetables In the Community (VIC) program, the Salvation Army,  the Easton Area Community Center’s programs for senior citizens and children; and Harlan House (a high-rise senior citizen public housing building). From mid-August to the end of the year, the produce is distributed through the Center’s food pantry. In late fall, the master gardener plants cover crops to restore the nutrients in the soil and reduce the risk of disease.

This past year, the farm assisted 1,479 residents through just its food pantry distribution alone, including 555 children, 796 adults (18-65 years of age) and 128 senior citizens. The demographics of these beneficiaries reflected the wide racial and ethnic diversity of the community, including White, Hispanic, Asian, African-American, Pacific-Islander, and Indigenous People.

Beyond its direct food assistance, EUF is also a force for social good. It provides a place for community socializing and organizing. It has constructed wheelchair-accessible raised beds for the use of residents with limited mobility, and has received a County grant for a handicapped-accessible path to allow expanded access to farm programs. In 2021, the farm started a youth internship program, providing opportunities for five high school students to work on the Farm for eight weeks, developing good work habits and learning about farming. In addition, the program introduces low-income youth to other career opportunities, with a goal of encouraging them to dream beyond the horizons they may have envisioned for themselves.

The personal stories of EUF’s beneficiaries are poignant reminders of the difficulties faced by some in our communities through circumstances beyond their control and the importance of acts of compassion and charity.

Sue, her partner, and newborn son were relatively new arrivals in Easton, who found themselves homeless. The family was admitted in The Neighborhood Center’s transitional housing program. But soon thereafter, it emerged that the relationship between the couple was abusive and unsustainable. After a period of unsuccessful counseling, Sue’s partner was asked to leave.  As a stay-at-home mother with an infant, the departure of her partner left Sue without any income. The Center arranged for food to be delivered to Sue from the food pantry to cover the gaps between SNAP monthly allotments. She was willing to work but was caught in the Catch-22 of not qualifying for subsidized childcare without a job and not being able to work without subsidized childcare. The Center’s staff was able to successfully secure subsidized childcare for Sue, thus breaking this vicious cycle, and soon she was gainfully employed. Fresh produce from EUF enabled Sue and her infant to thrive during this difficult period with nutritious fresh produce she could rely upon.

Bob is a regular participant in the food pantry. He lives alone in a small apartment and receives a very modest monthly Social Security disability benefit. He is limited in his ability to work by significant intellectual impairments. Recently, his rent was increased from $600 to $650, and his landlord announced his intent to increase the rent even further to $900 a month as of January 2023. Bob was facing hugely increased housing costs caused by Easton’s overheated rental market, and the proposed monthly rent was more than Bob’s disability benefit. While a staff member was able to get the future rent increase reduced to $700 a month, Bob’s financial situation remains difficult and underscores the importance of the fresh produce supplied by EUF to prevent hunger and malnutrition.

The BGR grants provided to EUF have helped to offer a lifeline to disadvantaged Easton-area residents, securing healthy food for children and elderly alike, and changing their lives for the better.

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What Do the Poorest Eat?

Posted on June 27, 2022 by | Comments Off on What Do the Poorest Eat?

By David Braughton

As a result of the war in Ukraine, climate shocks, economic instability, political conflict, and global pandemic, nations around the world are facing what the U.N. has called “a global hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions.”

A midwife feeds a malnourished infant at a site in northern Côte d’Ivoire through a BGR project with partner Helen Keller International (HKI). Photo courtesy of HKI.

Imagine living on less than $1.90 per day or $693.50 annually, the amount used by the World Bank and much of the international community to measure “extreme poverty.” Not that the world’s very poor have $1.90 in their pocket to spend. The poverty metric is based on consumption: a rough measure of what “subsistence” looks like for persons struggling to find enough food to eat, clean water to drink, shelter, health care, and other essentials.1

By contrast, in the U.S. per capita consumption of goods and services in 2020 was $42,645, or $116.80 per day. Even our pets fare better than the poorest of the poor. According to the ASPCA, the average American pet owner spends between $700 and $1,100 annually for food, health care, and sundries for their dog or cat, between $6.50 and $406.50 above the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty.

The World Bank estimates that there are between 657 and 689 million people today who meet the definition of “extremely poor.” These individuals make up the vast majority of the world’s hungry, the estimated 720 to 811 million persons who the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) determined faced chronic hunger in 2020. Tragically, the number of hungry persons has increased in the past three years, and today, as a result of COVID, the war in Ukraine, climate shocks, and political unrest, the total may be closer to a billion people.

To put things in perspective, the average moderately active adult male needs 2,500 calories a day and the average moderately active female 2,000 calories to maintain their weight. The FAO reports that for persons who are chronically hungry, the daily caloric intake is closer to 1,600 to 2,100 calories, a shortfall of 100 to 400 calories. Compounding the problem is that most of these calories come in the form of starches, such as rice, wheat, corn, or other grains, leaving the poorest of the poor with not only a caloric deficit but a nutritional deficit as well. If the goal is health rather than mere survival, people require not mere calories but a balanced diet, that is, a diet including a combination of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. According to the FAO, in 2019 the high cost of nutritious food coupled with persistent high levels of income inequality put healthy diets out of reach for around 3 billion people, in every region of the world. The figure for 2020 is expected to be still higher.

Most of the persons living in abject poverty are not dying of starvation, however, and the presence of chronic hunger is not always obvious. This is because our bodies respond to an inadequate diet by slowing down physical activity and, in the case of children, by reducing growth. In addition to increasing susceptibility to disease, chronic hunger has other negative consequences. It means that children may be listless and unable to concentrate in school, that mothers may give birth to underweight babies, and that adults may lack the energy to fulfill their potential.

While in numerical terms more people are chronically hungry in Asia and the Pacific, the most serious situation is in sub-Saharan Africa, where in 46 percent of the countries, the undernourished have a daily deficit of more than 300 calories a day.

So how do those in the poorest countries get by? What do they eat, if they are fortunate enough to eat at all?

To get some idea of this, consider the following three countries: Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere; the Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the gross national income per capita in 2020 was $550; and South Sudan, where fully 65 percent of its population of 12.8 million people currently face a severe food crisis, the consequence of political conflict, drought, rising food prices, and now the war in Ukraine.

In Haiti, all a typical family will eat are rice and beans—but only if mother or father are able to work that day. If a parent is unable to work or sell homemade items, chances are the family will go hungry. According to USAID, 2.5 million Haitians, or 22 percent of the population, are currently facing acute food insecurity.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 27 million people out of 108 million—one-quarter of the nation’s population—face crisis-level or emergency-level food insecurity. Most families subsist on cassava or yuka, supplemented by insects such as caterpillars, crickets, or grasshoppers, along with an occasional banana or local vegetable, but violence, disease, and a crumbling infrastructure have put even these meager offerings beyond the reach of many.

Over half of the population of South Sudan stands on the precipice of starvation, a result of war, poverty, and disease. Drought and insect infestations have decimated the maize and sorghum crops used to make kirsa (flatbread) and dura(cooked maze and millet), two staples of the country. Without food assistance, many families cannot cope, yet due to funding shortages, the World Food Programme has recently had to suspend some of its aid, putting the future of over 1.7 million people at certain risk.

The Borgen Project asserts that ending world hunger by 2030 would cost $265 billion per year in additional expenditures. By way of comparison, the U.S. spent $668 billion in 2018 on its defense budget and $394 billion in interest payments on the national debt. This means that the resources are there, if we have the political will to reorder our priorities. So what is stopping us?

What is stopping us is the inability or outright refusal to recognize our common humanity: that the plight of others, no matter what they look like, where they live, what their religious beliefs, politics, or lifestyle may be, directly or indirectly affects us; that our survival as a species and the survival of the world depend upon a concern for and commitment to the welfare of all living beings, not just family, neighbors, or folks who agree with us or like us, or even our fellow human beings. In the final analysis, it is a mistaken sense of “self” that imprisons us in the view that someone or something else’s gain is our loss and that our personal well-being is paramount. It is this that allows us to rationalize our enormous expenditure on our military or the monetization of food, enriching some while consigning nearly a billion children, women, and men to food insecurity.

In contrast, an awareness of our common humanity compels us to advocate for adequate nutrition as a fundamental and inviolable human right that we are all responsible for ensuring. It is this awareness that underlies the work of Buddhist Global Relief and guides our efforts to combat hunger.

That is why we labor tirelessly to raise funds, which this year will support 54 projects, 18 of them focused on immediate food aid for hungry families in such diverse locations as Tanzania, Vietnam, Haiti, Uganda, Bangladesh, and Senegal. That is also why we invest in teaching subsistence farmers improved, climate-resilient agricultural techniques in places like Malawi, Kenya, Cambodia, India, Brazil, and here in the U.S.

If you share our vision, you can join us in reducing world hunger through your donations or by offering your time and talents as a volunteer. Please explore our website to find out more.

1. United Nations World Summit for Social Development, p. 4.↩

David Braughton is the vice-chair of Buddhist Global Relief.

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Cultivating Nutrient-Rich Fruits and Vegetables in the Andean Foothills of Peru

Posted on May 25, 2022 by | Comments Off on Cultivating Nutrient-Rich Fruits and Vegetables in the Andean Foothills of Peru

By BGR Staff

Wawasonqo, a BGR partner based in Peru, has been working since 2006 to break the cycle of poverty that affects rural children and families in the rural Andean foothills near the city of Cusco.

BGR partner Wawasonqo works with a local farming family to build a simple greenhouse in the rural Andean foothills.

Considered as a whole, Peru is a success story of modern poverty reduction. Between 2007 and 2019, the national poverty rate in Peru declined from 35.5 percent to 20.6 percent. Over the last ten years, chronic child malnutrition was lowered to 13.1 percent, a 50 percent reduction.

However, even as economic growth in Peru has thrived, many rural people have been left behind. In 2020, 46 percent of the largely indigenous rural population were poor, compared to 26 percent in urban areas. In many rural areas, a devastating 33 percent of indigenous children suffer from malnutrition, and levels of stunting due to extreme malnutrition have not decreased among rural children in the last decade, according to the World Food Programme.

Peru has also been severely devastated by the Covid pandemic. With more than 200,000 Covid deaths in this country of just under 33 million people, Peru’s death rate from the pandemic is the highest in the world, at nearly 650 deaths per 100,000 people. (For comparison, the U.S. has lost approximately 300 lives per 100,000 due to Covid.)

Wawasonqo, a BGR partner based in Peru, has been working since 2006 to break the cycle of poverty that affects rural children and families in the rural Andean foothills near the city of Cusco. For the past five years, BGR-sponsored projects have addressed chronic malnutrition in children and young people in the Piskak’uchu, Tiaparo, Olmiron, Palomar, and Chaquepay indigenous communities. In these rural areas, families’ cultivatable land is small, generally averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 square meters, and many people here use their land to raise products for sale, relying on inexpensive purchased food to feed their families. As a result, many children and families consume food of low quality, mostly noodles, rice, and potatoes.

Wawasonqo’s goal is to support families in creating new nutritional habits and customs to enable long-term food autonomy. The projects therefore generally proceed in two stages. The first stage involves raising awareness among families, especially mothers and pregnant women, about good nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet for their children’s growth, health, and well-being. Then, to support parents in putting this knowledge to work in nourishing their families, Wawasonqo provides hands-on education in the cultivation, preparation, processing, and preservation of fruits and vegetables.

Wawasonqo staff demonstrate composting techniques at workshops offered freely to the local community.

The projects provide families with training and resources to cultivate vegetables such as spinach, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and tomato for home consumption, to provide much-needed nutrients in the families’ diets. Workshops are given on topics including organic agronomy, nutrition, preparation of dishes, and the making and sales of agricultural products such as jams, pickles, nectars, and preserves. Additionally, the projects support the construction of simple greenhouses. In these greenhouses, families use seeds provided by our partner to grow fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals.

The communities where Wawasonqo works are often small; the Chaquepay community, the focus of this year’s BGR project, is home to about 150 families. The trainings and workshops are freely offered to the entire community, and our partner estimates that a third of the households may participate.

Vicentina Quispe Solis and Juan Huaman Apaza are migrants from the heights of the Peruvian Andes; previously, they lived in the Q’esqa region, located some 14,700 feet above sea level. Together with their two young children and extended family members, the family lives in a modest house in the remote Kabrakancha area of Piskak’uchu. Construction of a greenhouse here involved the arduous leveling of a parcel of steep hillside. After the work was completed, the Wawasonqo trainers joined the family for a meal and, over a supper of chicken soup and boiled corn, together brainstormed ideas for marketing the organic produce they planned to grow.

Alipio Ramirez’s family has a long history in the Olmiron-Piskak’uchu-Kabrakancha region. He lives with his wife, Alicia Chata, and their children on a steep plot of land where harsh winds made building a greenhouse a difficult task. With persistence and ingenuity, the Wawasonqo trainers were able to work with the family to construct a weather-resistant and high-producing greenhouse. Eager students, the family were also teachers, sharing knowledge with neighbors and their Wawasonqo trainers about the cultivation of mushrooms, avocados, peaches, and other locally grown crops.

Crisologo and Eulalia Huaman are the parents of three young girls in the Huarocondo district. A local leader, Crisologo approached Wawasonqo to request that the greenhouse project be brought to his community and worked with neighbors to spread the education and resources provided by the trainings throughout the community. Percy Rodriguez Cámara, executive director of Wawasonqo, was moved by the commitment and collaborative spirit of this small community. “Their effort and perseverance inspires us to continue with the work of helping those who need it most,” he said.

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BGR Board Approves 54 Projects for the 2022–23 Fiscal Year

Posted on May 16, 2022 by | Comments Off on BGR Board Approves 54 Projects for the 2022–23 Fiscal Year

By BGR Staff

This spring, BGR’s Board approved 54 projects serving thousands of people around the world. The project funding for BGR’s fiscal year 2022–23 amounted to $1,089,574.

BGR’s ongoing partnership with Maitreya Charity in Mongolia provides hot meals and educational support to children in need through the Asral Hot Meal Project, one of 54 projects approved for the coming fiscal year.

During the weekend of April 30 and May 1, 2022, the Buddhist Global Relief Board and staff reviewed and approved 54 project proposals from partners in 20 countries around the world for our 2022-23 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The approved projects will relieve hunger, educate children, provide vocational opportunities and training for vulnerable women, and support sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers. The projects will take place in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and here in the United States.

Once again this year we were joined for part of the meeting by Board members from BGR’s European sister organization, Mitgefühl in Aktion (MiA), which is cosponsoring seven projects with us. These include sponsorship for the families of backpack medics in Myanmar; a girls’ home and community center in India; and a vocational training program for widows and single mothers in Cameroon.

The total spending to be allocated to grants comes to $1,089,574, which includes a contribution from MiA of $42,000, distributed equally over the seven cosponsored projects.

A majority of BGR’s projects are renewable year to year as our trusted partners continue to demonstrate the responsiveness and effectiveness of their work over time. This year, the Board approved three new projects, all from existing BGR partners.

In Sri Lanka, a project with our partner Shraddha Charity Organization will address an epidemic of chronic kidney disease among Sri Lankan paddy farmers. In the last two decades, more than 23,000 deaths have been reported from this virulent disease caused by water contaminated by agrochemicals. The majority of victims are middle-aged men who are the breadwinners for their families, and their passing devastates their family’s livelihood and food security as well as their children’s education. This new project will construct sources of safe water, including deep wells and state-of-the-art water-purification systems, in areas affected by contaminated water in the communities of Kandaketiya and Dakunamahatennagama in Sri Lanka. The project will also raise community awareness of the dangers of water contamination and educate the public about the risks of agrochemical use in farming practices. The project will directly benefit 2,173 people, half of them women and girls; an additional 1,000 people in these communities will benefit from access to new sources of clean drinking water.

A second new project with Shraddha Charity Organization will provide nutritious breakfasts for undernourished schoolchildren in Sri Lanka’s North Eastern Province, where rates of malnutrition are high due to widespread poverty and thousands of children arrive at school hungry each day. This new project will provide 166 poor schoolchildren, half of them girls, with a nutritious breakfast daily for the duration of the 2022–23 school year. The meals will give the children much-needed nutrients and energy to focus on their studies, offering them a path out of generational poverty.

In Cameroon, where Covid has amplified the ill effects of the ongoing civil war known as the Anglophone Crisis, it is estimated that more than a million people are living as IDPs (internally displaced persons), separated from their home communities and without access to their land, livestock, and other means of livelihood production and survival. In the villages of Bulu and Bokwaongo in southwest Cameroon, an influx of IDPs has led to food scarcity, increased food prices, and widespread hunger. To address this issue, long-term BGR partner CENCUDER is introducing an organic vegetable gardening project serving IDPs and others who are experiencing food insecurity. These include widows, single mothers, and young people whose families cannot afford to send them to school. The project will provide training and materials for the cultivation of huckleberry, tomato, eggplant, okra, amaranth, and other small-scale crops. Our partner’s aim is to support participants in harvesting sufficient crops both to feed themselves and their families and to sell on the market, enabling them to earn income for education and other fundamental household needs. The project will benefit 160 people, including 100 women.

To meet the additional stress that inflation is causing for our partners who are initiating direct food assistance projects, the BGR Board decided to provide each of these partners an additional 10 percent supplement to the grant. Thus, for example, if a grant was originally designated for $10,000 to a particular partner, the grant will be increased to $11,000.

We are deeply grateful to all our donors whose donations have contributed to our success, and to all the volunteers who devote time and energy to easing the burden of work on our Board and staff.

May the fruits of our work together be a light in the world, a source of ease, hope, and nourishment for those whom we serve.

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War in Ukraine, the Tipping Point for a Global Food Catastrophe

Posted on April 22, 2022 by | Comments Off on War in Ukraine, the Tipping Point for a Global Food Catastrophe

By David Braughton

The war in Ukraine entails not only death, injury, and destitution for millions of people, but is also precipitating a major food crisis with global ramifications.

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Refugees leaving Ukraine. Photo by Mirek Pruchnicki, from Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

The scenes of widespread destruction and devastation coming out of Ukraine remind one of the kind of post-apocalyptical world depicted in graphic novels where the unthinkable has happened. Bodies littering the street, entire residential neighborhoods decimated, safe havens—hospitals, bomb shelters, daycare centers—bombed, and hastily dug mass graves scarring the landscape. One photo shows a woman mourning over her young child who was killed in a missile strike. Another shows an elderly woman desperately clawing at the rubble of what was once her home, hoping to find her loved ones still alive beneath the broken bricks and shredded timbers. In still another, men look futilely at an apartment building with flames pouring out of rooms that, until yesterday, people called home.

Over 4 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland to neighboring countries. They are the lucky ones. Another 7.1 million Ukrainians have been dislocated and thousands have perished. What these images do not show is the starvation that many Ukrainians now face, while at the same time warehouses stand filled with thousands of metric tons of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil. Farms, which once grew enough grain to feed 400 million people, have become battlegrounds just as the growing season begins. All these are portents of an even more widespread catastrophe for people around the globe who depend on Ukrainian grain and oil for their daily diet.

Even before the war broke out, an estimated 881 million people, approximately 10% of the world’s population, experienced chronic food insecurity. Local conflicts, climate change, supply chain disruptions, rising fuel prices, and chronic unemployment caused by COVID, had already pushed many of these individuals to the brink of starvation. As a result of the war, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that as many as 250 million more of the world’s poor will become food insecure.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the cost of wheat rose by 80% between April 2020 and December 2021. Recently, a UN report said that food prices across the globe rose by 34% this past year. For people in poor countries such as Egypt, who might spend as much as 50% or 60% of their income on food, this increase has put many essentials, such as bread and other staples, out of their reach. Four months ago, five Egyptian pounds (roughly 30 cents in U.S. currency) would have bought ten loaves of bread, but now they can buy only seven.

The WFP reports that the countries most dependent upon Ukrainian exports include Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. But the effects are being felt globally, even in places as remote as Peru and Sri Lanka, where the ever-increasing cost of food is contributing to political unrest and instability. In both countries, people have turned out for mass demonstrations and, in some cases, have rioted to protest the scarcity and cost of staples such as wheat and corn and gasoline.

Western nations have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by imposing harsh economic sanctions and supplying Ukraine with primarily defensive weapons. The result has been even more costly fuel, the loss of another important source of basic foodstuffs, and a drastic reduction in the export of fertilizer, which many farmers depend on to grow their crops. Add to this the drought that has reduced wheat yields in the western United States and elsewhere, and the situation looks even more dire.

The World Food Programme, which feeds approximately 250 million people daily, reports that prior to the war, it purchased 50% of all its grain from Ukraine. Now it must spend $71 million more each month due to shortages and rising shipping and operating costs. David Beasley, the program’s Executive Director, has stated that the WFP may have to cut rations in half as they turn their attention to also feeding the millions of Ukrainians who have been displaced and the millions more people elsewhere around the world who now face food insecurity and the threat of starvation. This means taking food from undernourished infants in Africa to ensure that people whose homes and lives have been destroyed, along with those who live far from the conflict, do not starve to death. Beasley goes on to say that “we’ve got now 45 million people in 38 countries that are knocking on famine’s door.” And the price increase in places like Syria will be 100% or 200%. In Yemen, the WFP has already cut rations to 8 million people and about 50% to people in Chad, Niger, and Mali.

The terrible irony, according to Beasley, is that there is $430 trillion in wealth around the world today, so there is no reason any child should be dying from hunger. Without immediate action, he predicts that in addition to civil unrest and political instability, the world will witness mass migrations unprecedented in human history.

For its part, Buddhist Global Relief has decided to make one-time supplemental allocations to twenty-two of the direct food relief projects that it currently sponsors. These projects are located in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Kenya, Haiti, India, Malawi, Mongolia, Peru, Uganda, Vietnam, and the United States. BGR is also intending to expand its emergency relief assistance in anticipation of more urgent requests in the coming months. If you would like to support these efforts, please consider contributing now. Our website is buddhistglobalrelief.org.

David Braughton is the vice-chair of Buddhist Global Relief.

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We Must Hear Them

Posted on February 25, 2022 by | Comments Off on We Must Hear Them

By Ayya Dhammadīpā

Where can we stand, but right here in this place, feeling the burning of the world? What else can we do but find the cool, still place within and the warm, gentle gaze for all people who live in fear, oppressed, enraged?

The Eastern Market in Washington, D.C. Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.

Stalls at the Eastern Market were filled with colorful fabrics, colorful foods, and colorful paintings of local landscapes, inviting folks to engage in the forgetfulness of shopping. The two of us—my daughter and I—walked through, casual and carefree on a Sunday in the District of Columbia. There was no need we were trying to fill, so we glided past the folks who were waiting in quiet desperation for cash-paying customers. We went on walking through the streets, though the day was so windy that the clothes fell from their hangers, and a tent lifted up and away from the tables it was meant to protect. Despite the turbulence, the folks behind the tables and under the tents felt compelled to stay, in the hopes of obtaining their weekly sustenance.

It was warm enough though, lacking the crispness of true autumn. So, when we arrived at the door, we were content to stand outside the restaurant and wait for the proper time. Eventually the minutes became 00 and the hour 11, and the server came to the door to let us in. It took her quite some time to open that door. She had to unlock the padlock, remove the chains, and turn the final deadbolt. It was a procedure that made clear the fear that lay behind those doors, the fear brought on by those whose desperation was not so quiet. This is the reality of the city, many people act out their frustration with the systems of economic and social oppression, and many others live in fear of those people.

On another day, a few weeks later, around the corner and down the block, we sat down in the hopes of eating foods like those of our Hispanic ancestors. The young, dark-skinned, dark-haired man filled the water glasses, smiled at the “thank you” I offered. Yet that was the only time I caught his downcast eyes. Betraying his inner world, the look on his face revealed his displeasure at having to pick up the dirty dishes. I felt the weight of my position, and the stark contrast of my experience as one with a white face and his experience as one with a brown face, though we are both Hispanic.

After this meal, my daughter and I planned to walk back through what we had already seen of the Market. We thought we already knew the place. Instead, I was confronted with another act of desperation. A man approached me, stood face-to-face, pleading for answers, earnestly seeking. Looking him in the eye was the only way to meet his thirst, his request for peace, his demand that the world be just for Black men like him. I told him that the world is an integrated set of conditions that harmoniously fit together to form what we see. I told him that, if we want peace, we must begin by being peace for ourselves. He spoke of guns and violence not far from where we were standing. I reminded him of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., and his exhortation that we stand in our places. He reminded me that the good Reverend Doctor was shot in the head. “No one heard him,” he said, wincing at his own words, his pitch rising with the strain, his face leaning in toward mine. “They heard him,” I said quietly. “We heard him.” The man paused, tilted his head, and seemed to have heard me. He asked for my name, and I gave it to him, knowing however that his seeking is not about me.

Where can we stand, but right here in this place, feeling the burning of the world? What else can we do but find the cool, still place within and the warm, gentle gaze for this man and all people who live in fear, oppressed, enraged? We mustn’t turn down their volume or walk only where we can’t see them. We must keep facing injustice wherever it appears, in whoever’s life we find it.

Later that day, I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a grand tribute to a dead white man, carved in white marble. I looked out over the reflecting pool, recalling photos I had seen of the good Reverend Doctor speaking powerfully, urgently to the crowd of thousands of earnest seekers, so many years ago. 

My eyes stung with the truth of the former president’s words, though he was referring to the Civil War and I am referring to a different kind of “war,” the social and economic wars that are happening all over the world today.

“…in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men [and women and folks], living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract…”

I appreciate these words because they point to a skillful response that I can offer. They point to the idea that to truly lift people from oppression is to value them as human beings, even if, or perhaps especially if, they struggle. They point to the recognition that their lives are just as worthy of care and honor as anyone’s. They point to the fact that it’s my duty, not just the president’s duty, to use my voice, my resources, even my body to acknowledge that they have always had immeasurable human value and that their profound troubles matter. And when I do that, it helps to ensure that they are accorded their proper place. 

I invite you today to consider all the people, here in the U.S. and around the world, who are earnestly seeking your voice, your resources, your body to help the world recognize their immeasurable human value. We must hear them.

BGR Board member Ayya Dhammadīpā is the founder of Dassanāya Buddhist Community in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a fully ordained bhikkhuni in the Theravāda tradition and a Dharma Heir in Soto Zen. In addition to English, Ayya teaches in Spanish, an expression of her Latin heritage.

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Expanding Educational Opportunities for Indigenous Buddhist Girls in Bangladesh

Posted on February 23, 2022 by | Comments Off on Expanding Educational Opportunities for Indigenous Buddhist Girls in Bangladesh

By BGR Staff 

The Expanding Education for Marma Girls project, with BGR partner the Jamyang Foundation, provides the gift of education for girls from the remote village of Dhosri and surrounding villages in Bangladesh.

The Visakha Girls’ School provides a free education for girls from impoverished families in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

The Jamyang Foundation, founded in 1988, supports innovative education projects for Indigenous girls and women in two of the neediest and most remote parts of the world: the Indian Himalayas and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. For several years, BGR has sponsored Jamyang’s School Lunches for Marma Girls project in Bangladesh, feeding students at Visakha Girls’ School, which serves disadvantaged girls from the remote village of Dhosri and surrounding villages.

The Marma people are one of four Indigenous Buddhist groups living in hilly terrain along the Bangladesh/Myanmar border. As members of an ethnic and religious minority, they live in precarious conditions of economic impoverishment and political uncertainty. The girls who study at the Visakha Girls’ School come from extremely poor families and live in very remote villages where girls have few, if any, educational opportunities. Their families generally eke out a meager living through farming small plots of land, working as day laborers, or petty trading. In the past few years, many families have faced additional financial burdens and food insecurity caused by the ongoing pandemic, abnormal weather events, and widespread unemployment. 

Due to a scarcity of schools in the area and a lack of paved roads, few children in the local community have had access even to primary education, and the obstacles for girls were particularly high. Boys have the advantage of being able to attend temple schools in their villages, but girls do not have this option. Likewise, boys may attend government schools in neighboring villages or towns, but walking to school poses serious security concerns for girls, who are vulnerable to harassment or assault.

Before the founding of Visakha Girls’ School, virtually all the women in the area were unschooled and illiterate. As a result of their educational disadvantage, few people in remote areas like these are able to avail themselves of government funding for rural development, because they are unable to write letters or fill out the applications. 

The schools founded by the Jamyang Foundation have been instrumental in changing attitudes toward education for girls and have helped uplift the status of women in general in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Since 2006, when the Visakha Girls’ School opened its doors to 38 students in two classes, the school has gradually expanded its programming until, in 2020, it was serving 130 students in classes from preschool to fifth grade. 

Each year, about fifteen students completed the fifth grade, and some were able to continue their studies at a junior high school located about five miles away. However, many of the girls had to end their education after finishing fifth grade, due to poverty and the long commute; the distance is simply too far for sixth-grade girls to walk each day. 

This year, BGR is supporting the Expanding Education for Marma Girls project, funding the construction of a new school building to enable the Visakha Girls’ School to provide education for girls up to eighth grade—potentially, an additional 75 to 100 students. 

The new classroom building will allow the school to educate girls through their eighth-grade year.

Since the completion of construction in January 2022, the school grounds are now home to a beautiful new building with three classrooms, an office, and toilets. In this first year, the Visakha Girls’ School has accepted seventeen students for the new sixth grade and hired a new teacher.  

Three members of this inaugural class of sixth-graders spoke with the Jamyang Foundation about their experiences:

Masaching Marma is the top student in her class. Her father is a farmer and part-time member of the village police force. Before the new building was constructed, her only option to continue her education would have been to move to the town of Manikchari, even though to do so would be a financial hardship for her parents. “They made up their mind earlier on to do whatever it takes to send me to junior high school, even in that far place,” she said of her parents’ support for her education. “But the new school, Visakha Junior High School, has given me a great new chance.” She added, “Here teachers are also very nice, kind, and pay attention to each student, as class size is small. The excellent part is this school is offering a computer technology class, which is unimaginable in other schools. We also have a nice library.”

Usainda Marma graduated from the Visakha Girls’ School a year ago. The daughter of a poor farmer and day laborer, she enrolled in junior high in Manikchari. Because her family could not afford to pay for her room and board, Usainda walked the two hours each way to and from school. When Covid closed the school for long periods last year, Usainda feared that her education was about to end. “I am very fortunate that my old school, Visakha Girls’ School, has started accepting sixth-grade students this year. This has given me a new life,” she said. “Although I will be repeating my sixth grade, I believe it is better for me. I am very happy that I can now attend school from home.”

Paisanu Marma is the eldest of six children whose parents work as farmers and in day labor. “As an elder child,” she said, “I had to take care of my siblings and help my parents with various chores. Luckily, my teachers at the Visakha School work closely with parents and explain to them the importance of education. There was no chance that I could have continued my schooling without Visakha Junior High School, and without support from the teachers.” She continued: “Here everything is free. We not only get free education, the school also gives us pens, pencils, notebooks, and books for free. I have enrolled in the sixth grade, and I am very confident that I will be able to finish at least eighth grade in the same school.”

The Jamyang Foundation’s aspiration is eventually to expand the programming at Visakha Girls’ School further, to enable its students to stay in school through high school.

This article is based on reports from the Jamyang Foundation.

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