DO NOT TIPTOE
There’s enough food in the world for us all: join the Collective in the national campaign to end hunger
A shared aim:
the Collective talks with Pete Greig, founder of 24-7 Prayer
Inspiring chutney:
meet the people rescuing veg from the dustbin
‘All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip or dance, just don’t tiptoe.’ Shane Claiborne To find out more about Christian Aid Collective go to christianaidcollective.org
GUEST CONTRIBUTORS
Adam Batchelor creates beautiful but powerful illustrations exploring justice issues around the world. See more on page 30 and at adambatchelor.co.uk
Luke Harman loves campaigning for justice, cooking curry and running. This year he’s doing all those things to raise money to help end hunger.
Charlie Blake is a designer and poverty fighter with a special passion to end modern slavery. See page 24 or contact charlesblake@ hotmail.co.uk
Alice Cane is a Christian Aid Collective intern, working to inspire and support young people and students across the East Midlands.
CONTACT US AT: Tel: 020 7523 2300 Email: collective@christian-aid.org Online at: christianaidcollective.org Twitter: @TheCACollective Facebook: facebook.com/christianaidcollective For regional offices’ contact information, go to christianaidcollective.org/office-contact-information Do Not Tiptoe will be available every six months. To find out when the next issue is on its way, sign up to our newsletter list at christianaidcollective.org UK registered charity no.1105851 Company no. 5171525 Scotland charity no. SC039150 NI charity no. XR94639 Company no. NI059154 ROI charity no. CHY 6998 Company no. 426928 The Christian Aid name and logo are trademarks of Christian Aid; Poverty Over is a trademark of Christian Aid. Christian Aid Collective is a mark of Christian Aid. © Christian Aid April 2013. Do Not Tiptoe is printed on 100 per cent recycled paper 13-421-J1189 Front cover © iStockphoto Inside cover image © Daniel Shufflebotham
CONTENTS
The food issue 12 What’s on your plate? 14 Your take on hunger 16 ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE IF: 18
– we tackle tax dodging
19
– companies and governments are transparent
20
– people aren’t forced off their land
21
– we meet our aid promises.
22 What would you do? The reality of hunger for one farmer in Kenya. 28 Get involved Pen and paper at the ready: it’s time to write to your MP Upfront and personal 4-11 Luke Harman and a life-changing trip; Jenny Dawson kills two problems with one chutney; Alice Cane craves variety; and Manuel Pavón looks forward to graduation. Life and faith 34-39 We think about making food a bigger part of our faith and spend some time with Pete Greig to find out how prayer is part of a justice lifestyle. See, hear, pray, do 40-47 Get your apron on because there’s baking to be done and a new recipe to try. Then take it off again because there’s also a film to watch, a prayer for us all, places to eat and a shopping challenge to get you thinking.
* UPFRONT AND PERSONAL
Why bother? Every one of us has the power to make a difference to poverty and injustice, but some days it feels like such hard work. We asked inspirational Christian Aid Collective campaigner Luke Harman to get us out from under the covers by telling us why he’s bothered
I
’ve long understood that there are many things in this world that are unfair: that while I was educated for free, there are children around the world forced to work in fields or factories without the opportunity to learn; that while I’m able to eat the foods I want, 870 million people go to bed hungry; and that while I take a drink from the tap for granted, families in many parts of the world have to walk miles to get clean water. I once felt helpless to do anything about these inequalities. But when I took a trip as a volunteer to Ghana, I learnt a lot about the world. I realised that many of the things that I’d thought were true were actually incorrect stereotypes. It hit me,
4 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
‘ The r ea is tha son I both er tw system e made th e chang s – so we ca se e them n ’
like never before, that people all over the world are just like me. Once you really get that, inaction in the face of injustice is not an option. What I’ve come to understand is that the lack of opportunities and freedoms faced by those living in poverty are made so much worse by unfair global and political structures and systems: structures such as a global financial system that enables tax dodging by unscrupulous companies to rob developing countries of US$160bn a year.
And what I also know is that the people in power are there to act on our behalf – it’s the essence of democracy – and we need to tell them about the change we want to see. That’s why I meet my MP again and again; that’s why I campaign with Christian Aid; that’s why I stay bothered. This year, I’m getting involved with the ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE IF campaign. It’s bringing together many different organisations to create a mass movement to put an end to the scandal of global hunger. It’s a great time to get involved. If you’re thinking the end of hunger sounds like just too
big a challenge, remind yourself what people have achieved in the past: think of the abolition of the slave trade and the end of apartheid. At one time these seemed completely rooted in society and impossible to change. But change did come. We mustn’t doubt the difference we can make. American anthropologist Margaret Mead’s quote keeps me going when I’m feeling helpless in the face of these problems: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’
In this issue of Do Not Tiptoe, our focus is on food. Christian Aid Collective is proud to be a part of the ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE IF campaign. Organised by more than 100 charities, it intends to make 2013 the beginning of the end of hunger. We introduce the campaign on page 16 and look at the four essential areas that it tackles. We also meet Julius, a farmer who can’t grow enough (page 22), and Chhai, who is succeeding in changing his community (page 21).
community and decided to tackle them both by making chutney! And on page 36 we speak to Pete Greig, founder of the worldwide movement 24-7 Prayer, and learn about the toolbox of prayer.
On page 6, we’re inspired by Rubies in the Rubble founder Jenny Dawson, who saw two serious problems in her
And then there are all our regulars: get your friends round for dinner with our easy veggie recipe on page 43, see if you can do better than us in the charity shop challenge on page 47, and pray for the world on page 42. Finally, feast your eyes on the offerings from our wonderful guest artists – in our centre spread and on pages 30-33.
Read on to find out more about the IF campaign and how you can make sure everyone has enough food. For more news from the Collective, sign up online at christianaidcollective.org ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 5
* UPFRONT AND PERSONAL
© Rubies in the Rubble
10 minutes with Rubies in the Rubble Jenny Dawson couldn’t stomach the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables that are thrown away before they even reach our homes. Spurred on by the fact that so many people are hungry in our world of plenty, and also wanting to do something about the problems in her local community, she set up Rubies in the Rubble and started making chutney. It’s good food that’s doing good stuff What inspired you to start Rubies in the Rubble? We set up as a company because we were excited about solving two issues – food waste and unemployment – in ways that are sustainable and work for local communities. Our name incorporates what we’re all about, which is finding things that society rejects or sees as unwanted, and turning them into something precious and of value. We’re focused on preserves. Fruit and veg start to perish very quickly, and I wanted to give them a longer life. The thing that really struck me was when I went to the wholesale fruit and veg market and I saw entire boxes of mangetout peas, which looked perfectly fine, being thrown away. Produced and flown all the way from 6 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
Kenya, just to be tipped into the bin before reaching anyone. I started looking into food waste more and more, and discovered that the government spends huge amounts of money on getting rid of it. It has massive repercussions, both environmentally and economically, and I thought there had to be something we could do. The scale of what was being thrown away really hit me. Fruit is perishable, so it has to be thrown away if it’s not sold or used quickly enough. But there’s not just one problem that’s to blame for food waste. People are very hard to predict – what we want to eat changes so often. What can we do about the problem of food waste when it seems so enormous? We need to be a bit more aware when
‘
we’re shopping: support small, local companies; value our food a lot more; and plan ahead so that we don’t buy stuff and then throw it away. We’re sitting in Britain, surrounded by plenty, so it’s hard to think about the wider issues – but we need not to be so consumerist, and to reduce our huge demand for things. Why is food such a great way to tackle community issues too? In the kitchen you have to work together with people – it’s great to spend the time chopping together and having the time to talk. We’re really built around teamwork and caring for the individuals that we work with. The contrast with being on benefits, or being unemployed, is that there’s something to take pride in – in creating something together, in having a job and having really earned your money. We’re based in the community; our kitchen is on New Spitalfields Market, one of the three big wholesale markets in London. The market throws away around five per cent of produce – but even that
‘
© Rubies in the Rubble
We need to be a bit more aware when we’re shopping: support small, local companies; value our food a lot more
is more than 200 tonnes of food waste every single week. At the moment we can’t prevent all of that, but our hope is to grow and to use more of the produce that would otherwise become waste. There’s at least one of these wholesale markets in every city in the UK – with all the waste that goes with it. 2013 is an exciting year for us. We’re hoping to branch out into new products and new places. People have been incredibly supportive so far, and we’ve had a great response. We’re a business that tries to represent teamwork, justice and love through a delicious, wholesome product. A business that shows the ordinary as special – highlighting beauty in the oddest of places. Isn’t that what life is about?
Find out more about the problem of food waste, and support Rubies in the Rubble to do something about it, by going to rubiesintherubble.com
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 7
* UPFRONT AND PERSONAL
Desperate for C
hristian Aid Collective intern Alice Cane took up the challenge to Live Below the Line, to understand how it feels when your diet is well and truly limited by poverty. If you’re lucky, it’s a challenge that only lasts five days – but it’s an experience that might change your outlook for life
BEFORE
I could already hear my mother’s voice in my head: ‘Well that’s a very noble idea, Alice, but you do realise you get ever so grumpy when you’re deprived of food?’ While this is a valid point, I thought even I might be able to manage to Live Below the Line for five days, joining with the 1.4 billion people that live below the poverty line. The challenge: spend only £1 a day on food and drink, and understand more about poverty. So, after some careful planning, I trundled off to the supermarket, shopping list in hand. Sadly, it seemed £1 did not allow me the luxury of ethical consumer choice. Shopping was something of a scientific exercise. With only £5 for five days, you start
to think of your body as a machine to be fuelled, requiring a mix of different substances to make it work. Carbs are easy and cheap, but protein is a challenge (I had a meat-free week), and fresh fruit and veg – not a chance. My only hope of vitamin C came in the form of a tin of grapefruit (34p) – worth the spend. Tiny decisions could affect how I functioned this week: tasty spaghetti hoops or unexciting, yet nutritious, tinned peas? (For those who are interested, I went with the peas. Wrong decision.) All set for the week, here is how I got on…
DURING
A taster (pun definitely intended) from day one: Breakfast: porridge, mixed fruit jam. Verdict: sadly worse than I’d predicted. Must experiment with cons istency to minimise gloopiness. Jam had unique acidic aftertaste – might give it a miss from now on. Lunch: four slices of bread, sunflowe r spread, mixed fruit jam. Verdict: not bad, but not nutritious. Feeling smug at budgeting for sunfl ower spread. Craving satsumas. Dinner: pasta, kidney beans mushed with tinned tomatoes and carrots. Verdict: felt hungry so ate early. Atte mpted refried beans but failed mise rably. 8 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
some vitamin C Dreading the evening munchies – might have to go to bed early ? Snacks: rich tea biscuits – an indu lgent seven per day (thanks Aldi) . Unfortunately, they disappear quickly and become boring after two. Here’s to the next 33… Drinks: water (it’s free – I’m so grat eful) and tea (three cups from one teabag – emp ty out the contents, use a strainer) that tastes of anything but tea and does little to revive after a carb-induced nap. Apparently, eating porridge oats out of the bag doesn’t help either.
AFTER
I write this after a lunch that cost me more than all of last week’s meals put together. I didn’t starve. But not being able to eat what I wanted, when I wanted, was unbelievably frustrating. I would find myself wandering to the fridge for a casual yoghurt or post-nap nectarine, but then the realisation of my restrictions would come crashing down and I would reluctantly slink away feeling hard done by. The monotony, the limitations, and the constant disappointment of rubbish food made me gloomy; and I felt powerless – but there was nothing I could do to change the rules. Getting through a normal day was a hard slog. A carb-heavy diet and poor nutrition left me feeling sluggish and tired all the time, and maintaining concentration was a battle I lost every day. It was also irritatingly inconvenient! I couldn’t meet up with a friend for a curry,
because I couldn’t afford to, and you can’t rock up at a curry house with a plate of baked beans. I couldn’t meet people for coffee. I couldn’t even walk my usual route to town, because passing Greggs would have been too testing for my flagging willpower. But my five days were nothing compared to the lifetime of limitations that thousands face because of the unfair rules of our world. Live Below the Line has shown me that poverty is not just about a lack of food, but a lack of choice – underpinned by a lack of power: the power to choose to eat well, feed your family nutritious meals, even choose which direction your life takes. Living below the line has given me a whole new understanding of what we’re fighting here – so if you’re up for a challenge, why not give it a go? christianaidcollective.org/lbtl
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 9
* UPFRONT AND PERSONAL
M
ian Aid/Tom Pilst rist on
10 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
best to reach your potential. Like many others across Nicaragua, Manuel’s dad didn’t have that power. As Manuel puts it: ‘The fathers have to work as day labourers because they don’t own land. So, as farmhands, they earn 60 córdobas (less than £2) a day. It doesn’t fulfil all the basic needs of their families. It’s a really common difficulty in my community.’ But Soppexcca has now helped more than 22 communities to set up coffee cooperatives and a processing plant for the coffee Ch
anuel Pavón has a hopeful future. Years ago, his father joined a coffee cooperative run by Christian Aid partner Soppexcca, and Manuel became a ‘coffee kid’. The Soppexcca programme meant he grew up looking after the coffee plants and their environment, planting trees and learning how to make the best coffee. For Christian Aid, the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, it’s power. Power to make decisions over your own life in order to decide how
d/Sian Curry
Manuel Pavón grew up in a coffee-producing community in Nicaragua that once struggled to get by. Coming together as a community has changed things for good
Christian Ai
Christian Aid/Tom Pilston
Coffee break
Manuel’s dad was poor and illiterate, but his dream was for Manuel to be well educated. Manuel is living that dream. He’s the youngest qualified coffee taster in the country, and is using his skills to pay his way through university.
they grow. This allows them to sell their coffee and earn a better price for it too. By working together as a community, the coffee cooperatives have increased the power of their members. Because they can trade directly, and cut out the middle man, Soppexcca farmers have more economic power and get a better price for their Fairtrade coffee. Using the extra money earned from Fairtrade sales to build a school, the community has been able to persuade the government to provide a new building too, demonstrating their newfound political power. Soppexcca is also creating the first women’s cooperative in Nicaragua, helping women
to find work outside the coffee-picking season, so increasing their social power within their communities. Soppexcca’s work makes sure the coffee farmers and their communities get a fair deal for their work. And in a world under pressure, they ensure the work will go on, now and for the next generation. As part of that next generation, Manuel is now looking to his own dreams: ‘I want education for my community. I want healthcare and houses for those families who do not have.’ With the power of an education, the outlook for Manuel and his community is good.
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 11
* FOOD
ONLY 10 PER CENT of the fresh fruit, and 60 per cent of the
fresh veg, eaten in the UK
is actually
grown in the UK.1
FOOD PACKAGING ACCOUNTS FOR UP TO WEIGHING IN AT
TWO-THIRDS OF ALL PACKAGING,
roughly 130kg per household
per year –
more than A BABY
ELEPHANT!
2
IN THE UK, WE SPEND ABOUT
15 PER CENT OF OUR INCOME
FOOD;
ON
In poor countries, people up to
SPEND
75
per cent.
12 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
1 Defra 2 Fuelling a Food Crisis, Caroline Lucas, Andy Jones and Colin Hines
About 550bn cm3 of water is wasted globally to grow crops that
NEVER REACH
THE CONSUMER.3
Each of us
DRINKS
between
2 and 3 litres of water a day, but to produce the FOOD we need uses about
3,000 LITRES PER PERSON PER DAY. 4
Currently, up to
HALF OF THE
FOOD PRODUCED IN THE 5 world is
WASTED.
3 Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not, Institute of Mechanical Engineers 4 UN Water, World Water Day – http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/animation_101.html 5 Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not, Institute of Mechanical Engineers
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 13
* FOOD
YOUR TAKE
ON HUNGER Why are millions going hungry?
‘It’s easier to turn a blind eye to poverty than admit that it’s partly your responsibility.’ Sam, Stroud
‘People are displaced from land and often can’t find work to earn money to buy food.’ Annelie, Bradford
14 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
‘People are hungry because of corruption in countries that barely have enough and corruption in countries that have enough but won’t share.’ John, Bradford
we ‘Here in the UK and US er mb nu only look out for one – ourselves.’ April, Carmarthen
‘Climate change is adding to food insecurity by devastating the crops of farmers throughout the world.’ Sara, Belfast
‘We rely so much on the world’s resources that we rarely give a thought to the people that produce them.’ Sarah, Oswaldtwistle
sources are ‘Wealth and re in the hands concentrated e already of those who ar privileged.’ Paul, York
‘The world cares more about what it can get than what it can give.’ Andy, Cardiff
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 15
Christian Aid/Eleanor Bentall
* FOOD
WHY FOOD? WHY HUNGER? AND WHY NOW? Y
ou might have heard a buzz growing… around a very small word. A small word that has the power to change the world. We’re talking about IF. IF we all play our part, this year could be a very important year, because we’re talking about turning four big IFs into reality – and ending global hunger.
We know that the planet produces enough food to feed everyone. And yet tonight 870 million people will go to bed hungry, and this year 2 million children will die because they’ve not had the right nutrition. But change can happen. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen 50 million more
16 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
children get an education and the number of people living in poverty has fallen dramatically. This year, we can kick-start the end to hunger. Alongside a coalition of more than 100 churches, charities and other organisations, Christian Aid Collective is part of the ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE IF campaign. In the year that the UK government hosts the G8 – attended by world leaders from eight of the world’s largest economies – we have a great opportunity to make big changes happen. That’s IF we can persuade the government to take action in four areas. We’re hoping you’ll join in at key times through the year – by speaking to your MP, writing to the prime minister, gathering to raise your voice, and making personal choices about the food that you eat. Together we can’t be ignored.
THE FOUR BIG IFs ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE GOVERNMENTS STOP BIG COMPANIES DODGING TAX IN POOR COUNTRIES. ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE WE FORCE GOVERNMENTS AND COMPANIES TO BE OPEN AND HONEST ABOUT THEIR ACTIONS THAT STOP PEOPLE GETTING ENOUGH FOOD. ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE WE STOP POOR FARMERS BEING FORCED OFF THEIR LAND, AND USE CROPS TO FUEL HUMANS NOT CARS. ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE WE GIVE ENOUGH AID TO STOP CHILDREN DYING OF HUNGER AND HELP THE WORLD’S POOREST FEED THEMSELVES. We need you to help make IF happen. Read on, find out more and get involved...
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 17
* FOOD
I
t’s hard to concentrate when you’re hungry. Even harder if you’ve been hungry most of the days of your life and your body lacks the vitamins and nutrients it needs to grow healthily. That’s why the Ghanaian government, wanting to increase school attendance, decided to give kids a decent school dinner. The government funds schools to buy produce from local farmers and give children a healthy and filling meal in the middle of the day – helping both the children and local farmers.
‘I want education and that is why I love school. If we weren’t given lunch at school, I wouldn’t get lunch. I am happy about having the food here.’ Lukman Somed Thanks to the school lunches, children like Lukman (pictured above) are healthier and have more energy to put into their schoolwork. This means they can look
18 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell
FUELLED BY TAX
forward to a better future where their own children don’t go hungry. SEND, a Ghanaian organisation supported by Christian Aid, makes sure the government scheme works in some of the poorest, most difficult-to-reach areas. SEND sets up community groups and they monitor the programme to make sure the food reaches the children who need it most. Since SEND became involved, the number of children having free school meals has surged from fewer than 5,000 to more than 50,000 in the northern region alone. But the scheme is still not able to reach thousands of hungry children, because of a lack of funds. It cost roughly £20m to feed around 700,000 children every school day in 2010. Yet Ghana currently loses more than £22m each year through tax dodging in the mining sector alone. If Ghana can raise the tax revenue it is rightfully owed, it would have enough money to keep up and expand the scheme, without having to rely on money from foreign aid.
I
magine paying your taxes but believing that your government, or the big business in your town, is stealing money from the country. What if there’s a company that you know makes millions in profit, but apparently isn’t paying any tax? What if you suspect your government isn’t spending money as it’s saying it is? What can you do about it? In Kenya, Christian Aid partner Mars Group suspected that billions of shillings of government money had gone missing – money that should have been spent on essential services such as education (which would help the country work its way out of poverty) and the school milk fund (which would help children fight hunger in the here and now).
‘Every US$10m stolen at the top will have direct impact on you at the bottom.’ Mwalimu Mati, founder of Mars Group
Christian Aid/Antoinette Powell
HIDDEN TREASURE
Mars Group researches how government money is spent and raises awareness about funds that are being lost to corruption. With the support of a member of Kenya’s parliament, the Mars Group had the missing billions investigated. Armed with this information, Kenya’s government recalled the budget and ensured that the money was available where it was most needed. In the fight against corruption, knowledge is power. To hold companies and governments to account, we need transparency. Governments need to be able to use information effectively to check money is being well spent. Citizens, acting together, must be able to check how governments spend tax money and what promises have been made to businesses that might affect their community. Corruption always benefits those with the most power. Transparency helps rebalance that injustice.
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 19
* FOOD
A RIGHT TO THE LAND I
t’s likely that you don’t own your own piece of land. It’s likely that you wouldn’t really know what to do with it if you did. But in India, where more than 70 per cent of people are dependent on agriculture, land is more than just something to own – it’s a lifeline.
‘Land is what we need to feed our children.’ Kalawati Bai, a mother of four, from Bhatapura
Christian Aid/Simon Williams
In the poorest communities of India, 60 per cent of children under the age of five are malnourished. But Christian Aid partner Ekta Parishad estimates that land reform in India has the potential to lift 400 million people out of poverty. When people are bought-out of their land, or bullied off it, by government schemes or big companies, they’ll often head to the city in hope of finding a better life. But all too often they end up living in a slum, with little access to essential services such as water, sanitation and education.
20 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
When people have the rights to the land they live on, and know they can invest in it without fear of being forced to leave, land provides an ongoing opportunity to feed and support their families. The community of Bajarangpura, in Madhya Pradesh, central India, once relied on collecting and selling firewood to earn money. Now the people grow their own food, on land that they own. The community marched with Ekta Parishad in 2007, along with 25,000 others, to demand their land rights. Life has changed dramatically since 2007. The march gave the Bajarangpura protesters the strength and the knowledge to pursue their case and win. But they weren’t content with their own success. In 2012 they marched again, this time alongside 60,000 people to demand fairer land rights for all of India’s poor. The marchers succeeded. The government agreed to meet their demands. The journey to justice may be long, but India’s landless poor are making it together.
Christian Aid/Amanda Farrant
A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT S
orn Chhai (pictured above) lives in Cambodia. For him, failed harvests meant more than just hunger: they tore his family apart. Because he couldn’t grow enough food to support them, he had to leave for the city in search of a better income. But once there, toxins from the plastics factory where he found a job made him so ill that most of his wages went on medical care. It was when Chhai had the chance to take up agricultural training from CEDAC, an organisation given funds by Christian Aid, that life improved. CEDAC taught him different techniques to get the most from his land, and it also helped his community to set up a savings group, so they could support each other with loans.
‘I used just five or six of the techniques on a single hectare of my land, and my rice yield doubled!’ Sorn Chhai Chhai says: ‘I sold the chickens and bought a pig. With the pig, suddenly my family’s standard of living really seemed to improve. I was able to earn US$2,500 a year by selling the piglets.’ Chhai is back living with his family, earning more than he previously believed possible. His experience shows how different life can be if poor farmers have the investment and support they need. Chhai is not only sending his children to school, but educating other farmers about the new techniques. Just imagine what can be done to fight hunger if more support is offered to small-scale farmers and rich countries fulfil their promises on aid.
ISSUE 2 Do Not Tiptoe 21
* FOOD
‘What would ’ you do?
e’s Sarah iv t c e ll o C The ne of the o n o s t c e Rowe refl s that has n io t s e u q very few speechless r e h t f le r eve
22 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
Sarah Rowe
Have you ever been hungry? What about hungry and not sure where your next meal is coming from? It’s hard to know what that’s like unless it’s happened to you. Especially if you have other people dependent on you to provide something to fend off the deep and inescapable pain of emptiness. In Kenya, I met a farmer named Julius. I warmed to him straight away. We chatted about his HIV status, – a discussion quite remarkable in a place where there is still massive stigma attached to having a positive HIV status. Julius has been brave enough to get himself and his family tested. He, his wife and one of his daughters are all positive. But the good news is that he is receiving the antiretroviral treatment that he needs to supress the virus in his system. As I said, Julius is a farmer. He needs a decent harvest to earn enough money to make getting the bus to the clinic possible; to pay for life’s day-to-day essentials and unexpected events; and to pay school fees for his daughters. (Primary school should be free in Kenya, but the government can’t afford to pay enough teachers to make that happen, and so in Julius’ community the parents chip in to pay for the extra teachers that are needed.) And Julius also needs a decent harvest to feed himself and his family – to eat three meals a day. In certain parts of Kenya, that’s very difficult. Climate change is increasing the severity and the frequency of droughts,
making them more common and more devastating. HIV treatment is dependent on having a good diet. Julius told me: ‘The tablets are good, they have made me strong again, but the only problem is I’m losing a lot of weight. I know that we have to eat well when we are on these tablets. I know that, and yet we don’t have enough food. What can I do? What would you do?’ He looked me in the eye and he said ‘What would you do?’ When I met him, Julius was already dealing with a virus that cannot, at present, be cured; dealing with having to pay for children’s education that should be free; and now dealing with climate change.
Because of the changing climate, the chances are that more and more people in Kenya will go hungry and thirsty. Julius is not a statistic, he is a real person with a real family. But sadly, he is not a one off. Research shows that in some African countries, climate change could reduce food production by as much as 50 per cent, and up to 250 million people will be affected by waterscarcity issues. I didn’t know what to say to Julius, and I still don’t. Luckily for me, I’ve not been in his situation: unable to grow, buy or find enough food. But until that dilemma is a distant memory for everyone on the planet, I won’t stop telling his story.
ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 23
Š Charlie Blake
* FOOD
Day 3
Day 2
Day 1
The no-choice
diet
Day 4
Day 7
Day
Day 6
Day 5
If you’re looking for a diet that’s been tried and tested by millions of people around the world – this is8the one for you!
mach ause sto • Will c well as ache as s, nausea, he headac eakness w muscle ility to in n 10 and a abte. Day tra concen ing will function risk in a r B • ired and be impa is greatly s of illnes . d e s a e r inc
Day 13
11
Day 12
Day 14
Day 15
Around the world, hunger isn’t just a temporary feeling of emptiness. For millions of people it’s a long-term
26 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
Day 9
Day
problem that can have lifelong consequences. More than 2 billion people suffer from lack of essential vitamins.
UP TO 28 PER CENT
OF ALL CHILDREN
IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES are estimated to be
underweight OR
STUNTED.
IF CHILDREN DO NOT GET THE RIGHT NUTRIENTS AT THE START OF LIFE,
IT CAN CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE
DAMAGE AND BRAINS. TO THEIR BODIES
This can undermine
their future earnings
potential by
AS MUCH AS
20CENT. PER
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* FOOD
STOP PRESS: This year’s budget announcement by the UK government declared that the UK would become the first G8 nation to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid. This is largely thanks to thousands of people writing to and meeting their MPs. Now we need to keep up the pressure for change at the global level when G8 leaders meet in June. 28 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
How to...
WRITE TO YOUR MP
Go to theyworkforyou.com to find out who your MP is.
On the envelope, use their full name followed by ‘MP’. In the letter you can start with just their name.
To get to the roots of poverty, and change the systems that keep people poor, we have to work together. We need a community of people using their voices to challenge injustice, and we need that community to include people in positions of power. Writing to your MP is a great way to raise the issues that you care about, and to start to build a relationship with them. Here are some top tips for writing letters:
Ask your MP to do something very specific, such as write to the prime minister urging him to take action.
It’s a great idea to write to your MP to thank them or encourage them when they take positive action. MPs receive a lot of criticism, so writing to say thanks shows that you want to support them to do the right thing.
Sign up to be a Collective lobbyist and we’ll email you four times a year with an MP info sheet – you can send that straight to your MP with your letter, and it contains all the info they need to take action. Sign up at christianaidcollective.org/lobbyist
Don’t forget to include your name and address so that your MP can reply to your letter.
Write the letter by hand! In a world dominated by emails, a handwritten letter shows that you care and makes more impact.
If you and your MP are on Twitter, why not thank them in a tweet when you receive a letter in reply? This shows them publicly that you are interested in what they are doing, and that you will stay in touch.
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© Adam Batchelor (based on photos © Christian Aid)
© Adam Batchelor (based on photos © Christian Aid)
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* LIFE AND FAITH
MORE THAN FOOD: We have all sorts of quirky cultural expectations around food: that sometimes it’s polite to refuse the last portion of something; that you don’t eat beef stew with your fingers; that (apparently) at formal dinners there’s an appropriate order in which to use the cutlery; that we don’t begin a meal with pudding, or eat mashed potato for breakfast. But all of these things are peculiar to our time and our culture. In other places you’d be looked at strangely if you tried to avoid eating with your hands, and in many places around the world it’s perfectly normal to have the same meal at any time of day. The breaking of bread and sharing of wine didn’t start as rituals in a service; they were tangible parts of the meal that Jesus was eating with his disciples and would have been around during most meals in Jesus’ time – a cultural expectation. So Jesus, in asking his
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disciples to remember him every time they broke bread and drank wine, was asking them to remember him constantly – his life, his message, and particularly what he did at meal times. Jesus often did something special when he sat down with others: he fed the 5,000, turned water into wine, broke bread. And more regularly, but no less special: he fed the hungry, included the ignored, and brought the poor and the rich together. Jesus made a point of eating with people that others might have left out, and made food a focus for inclusion and community. The early church carried on that tradition. Meals almost always happened in connection with social justice – with caring for the poor, and providing for the needs of the community. You could say that was the early church’s particular social quirk around food – sharing it.
A PLACE FOR COMMUNITY
EAT FOOD. BE COMMUNITY.
DO JUSTICE. We believe – more than ever – that food is still about community. If you suddenly had to fend for yourself, what would you eat in the next week? We’re not talking about what you’d eat if you were to use your own money and cook for yourself (though that might be hard enough) but about planting, growing, harvesting, and preparing food for yourself. Thinking about food in this way shows us why it immediately throws us into community . Food shared together is more fun, allows us to eat a wider variety of foods and to create new connections – between the people who grow the food, the people who prepare it, and the people who eat it. Food has the potential
to bring people together and to keep people together. The world produces enough food for everyone on the planet, but not everyone on the planet has enough food. What can we do about it?
Having dinner might be a good place to start. Let’s follow in the footsteps of Jesus and make sure that, when we sit down to break bread, we do it at the same time as campaigning for justice and working for change.
Visit christianaidcollective.org to watch our film More than Food and ponder some of the questions we’re asking ourselves about food and community.
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* LIFE AND FAITH
Christian Aid/Hannah Henderson
The Collective meets...
Pete Greig
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Pete Greig organised a prayer meeting that went viral and turned into 24-7 Prayer – the biggest prayer movement on the planet. We thought he might have a few things to tell us about building a world-changing community Is the Bible still relevant for the challenges we see in the world today? The Bible is the most subversive, dangerous, eternally relevant book the world has ever been given. If we actually take biblical teaching seriously about the injustices of this world, we will live counter-culturally. When I read what Isaiah 58 says about engaging with the needs of the poor, when I look at the example of Jesus and his relationship with people that were marginalised in society, I have no option as a follower of Jesus but to engage with the needs of the poor. What do you mean by living ‘counter-culturally’? We live in one of the greediest, most materialistic times in history, and it seems to me that to be a follower of Jesus in such a context is to be someone who discovers the beauty of living simply and the power of the word ‘enough’. A follower of Jesus lives as a global citizen, aware that most of the world doesn’t have the basic resources that we enjoy, and will refuse to believe the lie that a new pair of shoes or an upgraded phone will make you happy. We know that we are called to love our neighbour, it’s just that these days we find ourselves living in a global village, where our neighbour might be someone living on the other side of the world. So if that person doesn’t have enough to eat, or clean water, or the educational opportunities that I do, then I have to work out, ‘What does it mean to love that person practically?’ It seems to me that it’s particularly the followers of Jesus (who said that ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’, and who championed the weak) who have a reason for
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* LIFE AND FAITH engaging with the poor. It’s one of the ways we live differently; part of our prophetic message.
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C
You’ve said that prayer is an essential part of the rhythm of a life lived in justice – what does that mean? We’ve got to understand that prayer is a toolbox. There isn’t just one way of praying. There’s petition – that’s asking God for stuff. The question with that is, am I just asking God for stuff for myself, or do I take time to ask God for stuff for other people too? Then there’s intercession – that’s when we start to allow the things that break God’s
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nn /Ha Aid
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As a movement that focuses on prayer, why does 24-7 talk so much about justice? I discovered God’s heart for justice when I was working with Jackie Pullinger in Hong Kong, among people coming off heroin. She told me that there is no point in telling people that Jesus is the bread of life when they have no rice in their bowls. So we always have to respond to people’s practical needs. The other thing is that as you focus on God, you realise that he is focusing on the needs of the world. Prayer, mission and justice are like breathing. If you only ever breathe in, you’ll collapse. If you only ever breathe out, you’ll collapse. You need to find a rhythm of retreating in prayer, worship and fellowship, and then engaging practically with the needs all around us.
heart to break our hearts too. And if we believe God cares about children being trafficked, or dying from diarrhoea, then presumably we’ll begin to talk to him about that. Then there’s contemplation and adoration, and this really interests me – because anyone can make a difference in the short term, but you need some fuel in your tank if you’re going to do that for your whole life. Take Mother Teresa: caring for people and helping them to die with more dignity. She was able to do that for her whole life because she saw Jesus in every person she cared for. So we start to ask questions about engaging with justice issues out of a heart of worship, because we see Jesus in the poor. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that when you visit someone in prison, when you feed the hungry, you’re doing it for me. It’s an act of worship as well as mercy.
A Christian is a bit like a coal in a fire: it’s ‘red hot, but if you take it out of the fire and leave it by itself it will go cold ’ We believe community’s really important, that we can do things collectively that we won’t achieve by ourselves. Is it important to pray in community? There is a special power in corporate prayer that there isn’t in personal prayer. It is really important to pray together. If you can use Christian Aid Collective to connect with other like-minded Christians around the nation, or even around the world, then there’s something really powerful about that. A Christian is a bit like a coal in a fire: it’s red hot, but if you take it out of the fire and leave it by itself it will go cold. We need each other to stir us up towards love and good deeds, others who will help us live up to the aspirations we have in prayer. You’ve said that real prayer starts when we allow God to break our hearts for the things that break his. How do we allow God to break our hearts for people living in extreme poverty when the issues feel removed from our own lives? The main thing is to become informed. I mean intellectually, but also emotionally. That’s why I love the IF campaign against global hunger, because it helps us engage
practically and prayerfully. The fact that thousands of children will die of hunger today can be hard to grasp, but if you focus on one child who might be starving and you start to think about their situation – learn their name – then you will start to care. That’s where resources from organisations like Christian Aid can help us to get informed in a way that causes us to care and to pray. 24-7 began as a small group of students in Chichester and became a worldwide movement. Any advice for people who want to get involved in a world-changing movement? Life is too short to dream small dreams – dream big, take risks, find friends that dream the same dream as you. And then, when you have the big dream, work out the little steps that will get you there. And the other thing is to pray, because anything not born in prayer is born in pride. Ephesians 3 says that God can do immeasurably more than you can ever ask or imagine. That tells me two things: first, you should dream big and pray big – ask for and imagine things that could really change the world. And second, dare to believe that God can do it through you.
changing starts ‘ World in your street. And it
doesn’t start when you graduate, it starts now
’
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* SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO
Angry gingerbread Bake some gingerbread to join our army of gingerbread people with a mission – to spread the word that there is enough food on the planet for everyone, IF we all join the campaign To bake your own gingerbread people, you will need: 350g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 125g butter 175g soft brown sugar 1 egg 4 tbsp golden syrup Writing icing
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Method • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4 . • Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon. • Beat the butter and sugar together. Stir in the egg gradually. • Mix the flour and spices into the butter mixture and stir in the golden syrup. • Put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes. • Roll out the dough to about 0.5cm thick, and then use cutters to make
Make gingerbread people to encourage your friends to get involved in the campaign against hunger. Here’s what you can do: Bake some angry gingerbread people. Get creative with your icing and take a picture of your gingerbread with protest placards. Share your creation on Facebook and Twitter, with a fact about hunger. Don’t forget to tag us so that we can see it too! @thecacollective
your gingerbread people. (Use the offcuts to shape some placards for protesting gingerbread people!) • Place your people on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, with gaps between them to make sure they don’t grow together when cooking. • Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. • Once cooled, get creative with the writing icing so that your gingerbread people can raise their voices!
Bake eight gingerbread people to give to a friend. Make one a hungry gingerbread, to remind your friend that, right now, one in eight people on the planet is hungry. Bake and sell gingerbread at your college, uni or church, to raise money for Christian Aid to fight poverty and hunger around the world.
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* SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO
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he Collective believes good things happen when people sit down to share food together. It’s a special way to take time out of the daily grind and to build community. The early church did it all the time and, by getting together to share, they ended poverty within their community. Plus, making meals from scratch, rather than buying processed food, is usually better for the environment. So why not invite some friends over, try this recipe and see where sitting down to dinner will take you. Mexican-inspired bean bake Ingredients: Fairtrade olive oil, one large onion (chopped), three garlic cloves (crushed), spices (chilli powder/cumin/ cayenne pepper/paprika), two large carrots (grated or chopped), one red pepper (chopped), two tins of beans (such as kidney beans, borlotti beans, butter beans), one tin of tomatoes, soft tortilla wraps, grated cheese (such as cheddar)
Method • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4. • Heat a little olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic. Fry until the onion has softened. Add a sprinkle of chilli and cumin. (Paprika and cayenne pepper also work well.) • Throw in the carrots and red pepper, and stir it all up. If you have any other veg that needs using up, throw those in too. (Roasted sweet potato, squash and mushrooms are good.) • Drain the liquid from the tins of beans and add them to the pan. • Cook on a low heat for a few minutes, until it’s warmed through. • Add the tomatoes and simmer for around five minutes. • Take a tortilla wrap and spoon in some of the bean mixture. Fold the bottom inwards and roll the sides up. Lay it in a baking dish. Repeat until you’ve used all the wraps. • Pour any leftover filling over the wraps and sprinkle with the cheese. • Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted or crispy – however you like it best! Other ways to be low carbon in your cooking: * Don’t waste food – make sure you use up leftovers! (Find creative ways to cook them online.) * Eat less meat and dairy. Meat and dairy are the most carbon-intensive foods. * Buy the option with the least plastic packaging. * Learn when things are in season. Food grown in the UK is usually only low carbon if it’s grown in season (so it doesn’t need extra heating and lighting). * Where you can, buy organic.
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* SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) 12A Our local film buff, Chris Mead, tells us about a film that isn’t all laughs but might just broaden your horizons
‘E
verybody loses the thing that made them. It’s even how it’s supposed to be in nature. The brave men stay and watch it happen, they don’t run.’ Oh man, where to start? Where to begin with this uncomfortable, jagged sprawl of beautiful imagery and ugly truths. This is the story of Hushpuppy, her father Wink, and their home – ‘the Bathtub’. This is a Southern Delta community on the brink of extinction. Hemmed in by a levee on one side, isolated from the world, Hushpuppy and her people scratch out a life in the dirt, striking unexpected sparks of hard-won joy amid the stone and rusted metal. It’s a parable really. A grimy elegy to family and personal responsibility.
It encompasses grinding poverty, melting ice caps, prehistoric creatures and the wide, deep spaces in our global community that people can slip through.
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Sounds like a wacky, fun time, doesn’t it? But don’t worry, the whole thing is shot through with such beauty and such energy that it lifts the viewing experience to another level. It’s equal parts earth and air. Director Benh Zeitlin frames the story with breathtaking intimacy, circling and stalking his actors, pulling focus with the dirt pushed deep beneath his fingernails. And Quvenzhané Wallis’ performance as Hushpuppy is a revelation – muscular, vulnerable, bruised and brilliant. She brings a stature and an authenticity to the screen that I didn’t think was possible from such a young actor (she isn’t yet 10). I haven’t described the half of it, but don’t want to spoil any more. ‘Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub…’
We love… discovering new food gems: new recipes, new ingredients, new cafés; making new friends over dinner; and finding out that our favourite chocolate bar has gone Fairtrade We recently got together for some food – at some lovely places around the country – to start a conversation about food and community. Visit our website at christianaidcollective.org to watch the films we used to spark discussion, and get involved in the conversation. We went to: • Nexus, Manchester • The Station, Bristol • The Gallery Café, London • Boojum, Belfast If you’re ever in town, check them out.
We love...
If you know any places you think we’d love, tweet them @theCAcollective or share on facebook.com/christianaidcollective ISSUE 3 Do Not Tiptoe 45
* SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO Do not tiptoe around ...
Meat I
Water footprint
continue as people move out of poverty around the world.
Scientists at Lancaster University concluded that if everyone in the UK went vegetarian or vegan, it would have the carbon impact of taking half of our cars off the road. If we’re going to meet our targets to reduce greenhouse gases, we need to cut down our meat intake by at least half. Red meat, in particular, also has a huge water footprint; it takes almost 2,400 litres of water to make one beef burger!2 Meat production is increasingly linked to climate change, and climate change is increasingly making life difficult for poor farmers. While so many go to bed hungry, changing our meat-eating habits doesn’t seem like such a sacrifice. Sarah Rowe
1 fao.org/agriculture/lead/lead-resources/newsletter2/newsletter-09/en/ 2 ‘Imagine all the water’ European Commission imagineallthewater.eu/PDF/2770_Guide_IndirectWaterUse_EN.pdf 46 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 3
Demand Greenhouse gases
Carbon footprint
Climate change
Soil degradation
Water pollution
Deforestation
know how hard it is to change your eating habits. I grew up an extremely fussy eater, and was pretty determined with it. I refused to have a courgette near my face – which once resulted in tears at the dinner table, thanks to my brother. Food is so stitched into the very fabric of our lives that there are lots of factors involved in choosing what to eat. For a while now, we’ve been talking about how we can make changes in our lives to reduce our carbon footprint: actions such as walking where we can, or using public transport rather than cars, trying to fly less, and turning gadgets off rather than leaving them on standby. But fewer people are willing to think about what they eat. And this is unfortunate, because a UN report on meat and its impact on the environment has stated that farming animals for meat is ‘one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale – from local to global’.1 Of course, issues around food can be complicated, and it’s too simple to say that everyone giving up meat completely is the best thing to do. In some environments, grazing animals is the most efficient way to use the land. In others, meat production contributes to water pollution, deforestation, soil degradation and increases our carbon footprint enormously. It’s not that meat in itself is a bad thing, but that meat has gone from being a relative luxury to something we expect every day. Our demand for meat has risen greatly, and that trend is set to
Cookbook club A food challenge that doesn’t weigh heavily on your hips meets a shopping challenge that doesn’t weigh heavily on the world: find yourselves a new (secondhand) cookbook
A
re you stuck in a cooking rut? Do you cook the same four meals again and again? Eaten pasta and pesto one too many times recently? Fear not, we have a win-win challenge for you. Get down to your local charity shop and buy yourself a new cookbook. You give a good home to a lonely book, learn a new recipe, and support a good cause. What’s not to like? See if you can do better than our Collectivites.
Tweet us a picture of your favourite charity-shop buy
#charityshopchallenge
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SIGN UP! If you’re a youth leader, or involved in leading a group, and you would like to receive multiple copies of Do Not Tiptoe in the future, please also provide an address:
Address line 1: _______________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ Address line 2: _______________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ Town: _______________________________ ____________________________________ Postcode: ___________________________ Number of copies required: ____________ If you’re not able to hand this completed form back to a lovely representative from the Collective, you can send it to us at the following address (or sign up online at christianaidcollective.org): Christian Aid Collective 35 Lower Marsh London SE1 7RL
SIGN UP! Eat Christian Aid Collective, together with hundreds of other organisations and churches, is part of the ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE IF campaign. We’re urging world leaders to take strong action to tackle the structural causes of hunger, so that 870 million people will no longer lack food.
PLEASE JOIN US! Get involved in the campaign against hunger and join Christian Aid Collective by filling out your details: Name: ______________________________
differently Keep this challenge list on your fridge and see if you can revolutionisethewaythatyou eat, one bite-sized action at a time. Buy a Fairtrade product that you have never tried before.
Don’t throw away any food this week. Turn leftovers into a tasty new meal.
____________________________________ Email address: ________________________ ___________________________________
Go vegetarian once a week.
DOB: _______________________________ I give permission for Christian Aid Collective to keep me up to date with projects and activities via email.
Try out a local greengrocer and give the supermarket a miss.
When shopping, choose the option with the least plastic packaging.
Be vegan for a day.
Find out the water footprint of something you ate today.
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Invite friends over to cook and eat together.
We are a movement of young people and students who believe the world doesn’t have to be the way it is. We’re not content to tiptoe through life. We want to shout out against injustice and challenge the systems that keep people poor. We want to run towards a new world – a better world. To be love in action. Together we can be the generation that ends poverty.
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Together we are Collective.