America must feed the starving in Gaza & beyond
Famine occurs in Gaza because the food shortages caused by the War of Israel-Hamas continue to worsen. Lives and hopes for peace will be lost if we do not act. The United Nations warns against the emergency levels of hunger in all Gaza with at least half a million people suffering from famines as conditions.
“Emaciated children and babies die of malnutrition in Gaza,” pleads the director general of UNICEF, Catherine Russell. “We need immediate humanitarian access, safe and without hindrance to Gaza to increase the delivery of food, nutrition, water and drugs that save lives.”
America has responded in the past to the cries of hunger from abroad. We must not stop now.
As President Harry Truman said after the Second World War when he faces famine in Europe and Asia “I know that each American feels in his heart that we must help prevent famine and distress among our colleagues in other countries.”
Humanitarian breaks in the War of Israel-Hamas are not enough to feed the hungry. America must direct diplomatically in the end of the war, release all hostages and ensure that the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF and other rescue agencies have constant access to those who affect Gaza.
Cindy McCain, Executive Director of PAM, pleads “We must flood Gaza with large -scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and make it flow every day to prevent mass famine. People already die from malnutrition and the more and more we expect more and more, the more the number of deaths will increase. ”
We must also increase the financing of food aid, as recent cuts by the Trump administration have been devastating. The Trump administration must stop cutting food aid and rather becoming a supporter. The administration has even removed global funding for food aid in a recent set of attractions, including cuts impacting UNICEF, one of the main agencies in Gaza.
The American people help feed the hungry abroad and will open the way to this crisis. But we must remember that the scope of the terrible hunger that we are facing goes far beyond Gaza.
In Sudan torn by war, there is also famine and famine. The Sudan war has an impact close to South Sudan, another of the countries most at risk of famine. Haiti also faces a serious hunger crisis as well as Mali and Yemen. WFP and other rescue agencies do not have funding to follow these hunger emergencies.
This is why at this critical moment, it is important that the United States increases funding to help these charities to feed the hungry. Food aid is life, hope and stability for millions around the world.
Look at the recent peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, a potential stage towards the end of the conflict in the eastern DRC. Food aid is desperately necessary to save lives and strengthen these peace efforts. The DRC faces record levels of hunger and recovery will be long.
In the Middle East, people are hungry in Gaza but also in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. One of the best hopes for peace in the Middle East is based on food and hope for people tired of war. More fights will not eliminate extremism in the Middle East. Food and economic development is what the region needs instead of armaments and war.
We must not forget the impact of this serious hunger on children, the future of all these nations.
As Dwight Eisenhower observed it after the Second World War, children in Europe lived an “animal existence, fighting every day for any type of scrap that will maintain them alive”. Eisenhower asked, “How can we expect them to develop the ideas and ideals which, in the future, will lead them to be apostles of peace?”
If we are serious about world peace today, we should do much more to feed hungry children.
The Trump administration and the congress must be busy fighting global hunger. They should increase the financing of the Food for Peace program, which makes a relatively lower part of the budget. American farms also play a major role in peace for peace. The nutrition of children who experiences the life that food for peace supports must see a strong expansion.
America has a proud tradition of acting to nourish hunger suffering. We must continue this noble mission in Gaza at the moment when hungry children must be saved now.
Lambers is an author who has teamed up with the United Nations World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger: School Lunchs for Kids in the world”.
