Access to food capable of providing nourishment and sustaining life is a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, for too many people, this basic human right is not met.
In a 2024 report, the United Nations World Food Programme stated:
Around 9 million people, nearly half of Malawi’s population, have been affected. Up to 4.2 million are currently experiencing ‘acute’ food insecurity – level 3 on the global standard for measuring food insecurity (the Integrated Food Phase Classification), one stage away from ‘emergency’.
(Source: https://www.wfp.org/stories/tale-two-villages-malawi-farmers-point-way-drought-drives-hunger)
UNICEF builds on this, adding that:
In Malawi, the prevalence of child food poverty among children 6 to 23 months of age is 82.7%, where 25.5% of them live in severe food poverty.
(Source: https://www.unicef.org/malawi/media/9011/file/Child%20Food%20Poverty%20Brief.pdf)
Village Foundations firmly believes that this is unacceptable, unsustainable and not something that can be allowed to continue. As one of the four key cornerstones of a sustainable and successful village, VF believes that eradication of hunger, particularly among children, is absolutely critical.
VF has run multiple projects, intertwined with the other cornerstones of clean water provision, education and healthcare to try and meet these needs. Projects have included:
- Digging boreholes to enable water access for crops, and enabling clean drinking water as part of clean water initiatives
- Working with partner organisations to teach farmers how to grow resilient crops
- Purchasing and provision of land for crops
- Providing food for children as part of education and childcare initiatives
- Working with villages to assess and support suitable crop provisions for local needs
- Employing local farmers to grow sustainable crops
None of the work VF does is a simple handout – every project undertaken fits with the ethos of giving a hand up and not a hand out. VF doesn’t simply give food away to people and push problems “down the road”, it helps communities to help themselves out of poverty and grow in a viable and continuous way that will help for generations. This aims to reduce food poverty down from a multi-generational and perpetual problem with no end in sight to a problem that begins to be immediately addressed and permanently resolved.
As the work of VF grows and more projects are launched over time, this renewable methodology and ethos will continue to be refined and enhanced, enabling more people to lift themselves out of this otherwise dire situation and rebuild their communities.
VF and its partner organisations continue to work tirelessly to address this impact in multiple locations, helping thousands upon thousands of people in a way that sees the issue of hunger as a surmountable problem that can be solved in a holistic way.
