WHAT YOUR 40 HOUR FAMINE FUNDS ACHIEVED IN 2011
The results are in… and you guys have made a huge difference!
Last year, 121,000 young Kiwis went Hard Out for the Hungry and raised a mint $2.3 million to support kids. It was a tough year on the home front, with the Christchurch earthquake and rising food prices, so big ups for this massive effort!
East Timor (Timor-Leste)
In 2011, the 40 Hour Famine focused on East Timor, where almost half of all children are malnourished. Thanks to your awesome fundraising, thousands of kids in East Timor’s Aileu District can now eat regular, healthy meals because of projects like the following*:
- 5280 farmers have had training to improve their farming practices and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables they grow
- 7050 households have received improved varieties of seeds
- 530 families with malnourished children are receiving regular health checkups, seeds and agricultural training
- 1050 households have been trained in growing a wide range of vegetables from kitchen gardens
- 50 ‘Mothers Love Nutrition’ groups have been set up to help improve children’s diets
A forgotten smile returns
Seven-year-old Lily, who we introduced you to in 2011, is just one of many children whose lives in East Timor have changed for the better thanks to young Kiwis like you Going Hard Out for the Hungry.
Lily, the little girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders and a permanent frown, today smiles readily.
Now:
Lily's life has undergone huge change in just a few months. Lily's grandmother is involved in a vegetable group with World Vision and other women in her community. There's now much more corn growing outside the house, and Lily and her grandmother can eat regular meals. Lily's grandmother has got some work near her home and can now send Lily to school where she's learning to read and write.
“Lily didn't smile at first. Now every time I visit she runs up to hug me with a big grin on her face. She's a lot happier. But this is only the start. Over the next two years we should see some really big changes in her community, ideally an end to hunger.”
– Fiona Hamilton, operations manager, World Vision East Timor
Lily when field staff met her in late 2010.
In 2010:
World Vision first met Lily from the Aileu District in East Timor towards the end of 2010. Lily, whose father was murdered in a refugee camp, was malnourished and often sick. You might remember that she spent a lot of time helping her grandmother find and prepare their one meal a day – often cassava (a bit like kumara). Lily's grandmother couldn't afford to send Lily to school.
See Lily's story here >>
*Other projects that have benefitted from 2011 40 Hour Famine funds include nutrition projects in Bangladesh and Rwanda; an education project in Tanzania; a water and sanitation project in Cambodia; and rehabilitation and advocacy programmes on child labour and trafficking prevention in India.