Doing Good Without Looking at Whom:
Tackling Social Inequalities
This phrase refers to the discussion about the programs and actions implemented on food and nutritional security in Brazil, and their fragility with the causes of hunger around the world.
World hunger jeopardizes UN goals for 2030.
FAO report indicates that the goal of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition will no longer be achieved.
Known by its English acronym FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released the latest edition of its report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World a few days ago at its headquarters in Rome. (Source: FAO)
Currently, more than 700 million people suffer from hunger around the world, which is equivalent to almost 10% of the planet's population.
When it comes to our experience with the issue of minimizing hunger in Brazil, specifically in the Northeast, I bring you our didactic experience and working methodology with families, recyclable material collectors, peripheral communities, and traditional communities in the municipality of Pombal, in the Paraiba Hinterland.
When we began our institutional work with the actions of the CEMAR Pombal-PB Organization, we mapped and diagnosed families with high rates of domestic violence, sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, and the unemployed, including them in socio-educational, cultural, vocational, and citizenship activities and workshops.
We gathered socio-economic information on the spot about the real basic needs of the families we assisted, who were interested in enrolling their children.
We observed the lack of food and the basic needs of each family, which requires attention, priority, and the realization of a food and nutritional security action, that is, food for children and families, at least one day a week every Wednesday, as a way of offering food, as well as a symbol of meeting, gathering, feeding and nourishing the soul.
We came up with the idea of creating mechanisms of action through the Supplementation Program, called (Soup), translating it into the Food and Nutritional Security Policy, which is a way of alleviating the lack of food for the families assisted.
We created an environment that favored a policy as a way of minimizing hunger, serving 5 liters of soup to 40 families, and depending on the number of people, increasing the amount of distribution. The same policy would take place on the premises of the CEMAR institution, serving up to 70 families in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods.
This action was only possible thanks to our actions in conjunction with local businesses, making them aware of the proposal and action to combat hunger, donating foodstuffs, proteins, vegetables, and often chicken and beef carcasses to give a nutritious flavor to the soups that were offered to families on Wednesday evenings.
The actions and activities were carried out against a backdrop of poverty, of families who don't have a job, most of whom survive on the Bolsa Família, some of whom collect and recycle garbage, many of whom have problems with lack of food and most of whom come from quilombola communities in distant places, made up of descendants of black slaves from Brazil.
The political scenario, during the pandemic crisis, was devastating for poor families throughout Brazil, as it demobilized and dismantled the economy, pushing hundreds of people to the brink of death, unemployment, and lack of food on the plate.
In 1989, at the age of 13, I had the opportunity to meet Herbert de Sousa, (Betinho), a sociologist, social activist in the fight against hunger in Brazil, and one of the mentors of the National Campaign Christmas without Hunger and Action and Citizenship. We were taking part in the 2nd National Meeting of street children. It was exciting and remarkable to meet a man so involved with the most noble and humanitarian cause, which is the issue of hunger. I remember a phrase that I researched a long time ago, said by Betinho to me: 'Hunger is the worst of human indignities'. When a person is hungry, they have been denied all their other rights—source: Christmas Without Hunger Campaign - Ação Cidadania.
This creates in all of us the idea that when we break bread with people united in a feeling of compassion and fraternity, having satisfied the hunger of those who need it most, it also inspires us to make the people who benefit become the subjects of their history. And that's what happened with the Daniel Quilombola community, where they met, went to get their food, and discussed their reality, sharing their joys and anxieties, providing special and unique moments, unifying their forces, reflecting and sharing their ideas, and creating a viable and sustainable program to maintain themselves in a unified and organic way.
A significant fact, which we bring up as an experience, was the implementation of the food supplementation program, which was already being carried out and experienced within the CEMAR Organization and implemented in the remaining urban community of Os Daniel.
We provided a six-burner stove, a full gas cylinder, two cauldrons, and food supplements to run the program for two months.
Occasionally, we discussed with the quilombola community itself, in an exchange of knowledge, Paulo Freirean methodologies, and popular education, about ways of organizing and strategies for maintaining the action, in other words, walking on their own two feet. Don't give the fish, teach them how to fish. Let's think beyond this commonplace and romanticized phrase:
Let's ask ourselves what José Mojica says: The ownership sectors say that you shouldn't give people fish, but teach them to fish. But when you destroy their boat, steal their rod, and take away their hooks, you have to start by giving them the fish.
Experience shows that through our goodwill, we can accomplish great things and bring good news to those who need it.
The seed there was planted and germinated with love, respect, and responsibility.
In total, more than 10,000 meals were served during the pandemic period, voluntarily without public resources, with donations alone shared by ordinary people.
Let's Do Good Without Looking at Whom!
I do it with love, do it with compassion.
I do it out of brotherhood, do it out of kindness.
I do what is, and do it with justice.
I do it out of solidarity, do it out of solidarity.
By: José Ribeiro da Silva.
SDG 1, SDG 2
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