World Vision 40 Hour Famine

 Date this was actually completed: May 16th- roughly the 30th of August

World Vision is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid program that has been in operation since 1950. Their work is child focused, aimed at achieving their goal of global child wellbeing. The 40 hour famine is an annual charitable event held by world vision which requires participants to abstain from something for 40 consecutive hours. Common ideas are food are food and technology (but that’s just two). Participants then raise money through sponsorship from other people which goes towards helping children in third world countries.

Along with a couple of other students from Narrabundah, I volunteered to be a world vision ambassador within my school with a focus on promotion the 40 hour famine. In order to take up a role as one of the ambassadors, I had to go to a young global leader’s convention run by world vision on May 16th which was filled with other eager-to-fight-poverty-teenagers. The convention was split into two blocks. During the first block, we took part in a simulation game where all of us teenagers were divided up into about 20 different groups, each group representing a different country. We were then each given different quantities and varieties of crops and livestock which we had to organise in a manner that would cater for our country (each country had a different population). Some countries were given more than they needed, some weren’t given enough. The next part of the game was designed to mimic international trade. This trading could involve crops livestock, even people. The countries whom had not enough crops or livestock to feed their population ended up trading their own people to other countries for food. Whilst we weren’t aware of it at the time, our simulation game was becoming more and more like the disgusting reality of real international trade, where people in countries like Cambodia are trading young women as sex slaves in return for money to help support themselves.

Here's a photo of one of the groups/countries during the international trade simulation

 

The second block of the convention was a lecture. To start off, we examined real life international trade and learnt that because food is so scarce in some areas, people are being forced into people trafficking (trade of people). Young children, particularly young girls are being kidnapped and traded as sex items in return for money/goods to support the kidnapper. They taught us all about the global food crisis statistics and all. Did you know that 1 in every 8 people in the world suffers from undernourishment? Or that poor nutrition causes nearly (45%) of deaths in children under the age under five?

 

It was really confronting to hear the struggles of individuals; men, woman and children even who are living in such countries where food, something we take for granted, is so scarce. I’ve linked a video of one of these individuals, a young girl named Dorothy. Her story really opened my eyes up to the stark reality of the global food crisis

 

The lecture then took a more positive turn when they started discussing with us solutions to these global issues and how we as individuals could make a difference. The 40 hour famine in Australia was aimed at raising funds for projects in Malawi. These projects would help build sustainable farms and water outlets, and also teach people in Malawi strategies for coping with harsh weather conditions and limited wealth.

The next step as an ambassador was to take this to my school- to get other students interested and eager to participate in the 40 hour famine. After many meetings with fellow ambassadors and teachers, we brainstormed different ways to approach it. The date scheduled for the actual famine was the 16-18 of August, so we still had a couple of months to prepare. We began by creating posters to stick around the school which would inform other kids about what the famine was, when it was etc. some posters also displayed our school target- $10,000. The next thing we did was run bake sales every few week where all donations would go directly towards the schools famine account.  As it got closer and closer to the actual famine we had to start signing people up to actually participate in the famine and collect their own sponsorship money. I myself participated and gave up the ability to talk for 40 hours.

This was really challenging. No talking included texting, email, Facebook (any digital medium really) the only way I could communicate to others was through writing on a little pad of post it notes I carried around with me. Independently, I raised $250 which was a big achievement for me considering that the year before I only raised $90. Once the famine was over and my peers and I finished counting all the donations from the bake sales and other people’s sponsorship money, we came to a total of just over $8000. Whilst it was a solid $2000 off our target, $8000 is still a massive achievement and will go a long way in Malawi. At the convention we learnt that just $40 is enough to feed a family of 4 for a month, so that $8000 should cover a family of 4 for roughly 200 months (or vice versa, 200 families for a month… whatever way, it’s certainly a lot!)

Serving as an ambassador for the world vision 40 hour famine helped me to achieve multiple of the C.A.S learning outcomes.

-          I had to work collaboratively with others, the others being my fellow ambassadors

-          I engaged in a global issue; that being the global food crisis and the fight against poverty

-          My awareness of both my strengths and areas for growth were increased. I learnt that I possess some rather good leadership skills however learnt that my time management skills need some working on

-          I had to plan and initiate activities such as the bake sales and also the collection of all donations and sponsorship money