By Micaela AboodyFriday 2 Sep 2022Social JusticeReading Time: 2 minutes
Over the last year, global food insecurity has reached an all-time high with the rising inflation, COVID-19 and the Russia and Ukraine war having worldwide impacts.
Child development organisation Compassion Australia sponsors children in 25 countries, however, this year they are putting plans into action in the hope of solving the global food crisis, while they say the solution is still within reach.
Compassion’s Executive Director for Neighbouring Experience Jono Kirk said food insecurity is threatening to reverse decades of global progress towards eradicating poverty.
“We work predominantly through the local church and that church has been there and will continue to be there through this crisis and long past the crisis,” Mr Kirk said.
Compassion is working in two ways, firstly, getting immediate relief by delivering food packs to those in affected areas such as Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka and, secondly, distributing seeds, fertiliser and livestock to work towards long-term food security.
“We’re wanting to answer both the immediate need and answer the long-term solution to it,” he said.
“We’re wanting to answer both the immediate need and answer the long-term solution to [the global food crisis],” – Jono Kirk, Compassion Australia
In the last six years, the world’s hunger has increased by 500 per cent, equivalent to 276 million people, which is 10 times the population of Australia.
“We’re hearing about the country of Sri Lanka and the challenges they have with food and economical and political crisis creating [poverty] for families,” Mr Kirk said.
“When the world bank releases [statistics] like 10 million people being thrown into extreme poverty worldwide for every percentage point a food price increases, that’s where we go ‘we actually need to act, we need to move now’.”
Compassion Australia is asking Australians to answer “hunger with hope”.
“The heart behind this is we want to answer hunger with hope before that solution is out of reach… we are trying to address it early and we are trying to address it in a way that’s going to have lasting impact,” Mr Kirk said.
Find out more about Compassion’s Fight Hunger campaign.