World Food Day: This is Thoko’s Story
World Food Day
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The sun beats down on 42-year-old Thoko Mpulo’s homestead in rural South Africa. Thoko and her husband, Mzwakhe, are struggling to provide enough food and warm clothing for their nine children – four of whom they adopted because their parents died.
While her husband drives a truck to earn money to help feed the family, Thoko cultivates maize on a plot of land they share with their large, extended family. Thoko’s family consumes most of the maize except for a small portion they normally sell to a local mill owner nine miles away. However, financial woes are hindering Thoko’s ability to cultivate the entire plot of land.
Despite pinching pennies, Thoko says she is fearful that the growing cost of seeds, fertilizer and fuel will become too much for her homestead to afford. This year, her family is only able to cultivate a portion of their land because they are unable to afford fertilizer.
“I am not 100 percent sure we will get a profit this year,” Thoko tells ActionAid. “We can’t cultivate as much as we could.
“The price of food in the shops is high,” she adds. “We need to buy potatoes, meat, some fruits and warm clothes for the children. Sometimes we have to go without.”
Without proper investment and support from the government, smallholder farmers like Thoko are struggling to make use of the land and support their families.
Busisiwe Mpulo takes a break from harvesting maize to feed her grandson, two-year-old Philasande Mpulo. Busisiwe works on the farm with her relative, Thoko Mpulo, in South Africa’s Emmaus District.
Copyright © James Oatway/Panos/ActionAid
“We don’t want to depend on government,” Thoko tells ActionAid. “We just want a kick start.”
Thoko is just one of 1 billion people who face hunger each day – 60 percent of whom are smallholder farmers while another 20 percent are landless agricultural laborers. Shifting weather patterns associated with climate change are complicating the situation for farmers like Thoko whom are dependent on rains to feed their crops.
World Food Day, October 16, is an opportunity for communities around the globe to learn what they can do help end hunger. At ActionAid, we are holding events around the world to educate and rally supporters behind the cause. In the United States, we are co-hosting a briefing on Capitol Hill to explore the link between hunger, increased demand for biofuels and food prices.
Everyday, though, ActionAid helps families around the world deal with changing weather patterns by developing agricultural programs that build resilience to climate change.
Please join us by supporting our work around the globe to help millions of impoverished people deal with famine caused by climate change.
We can end poverty. Together. Please join us.
