May 2, 2012 | 6:01 pm UTC
My wife takes care of our youngest grandchild who is now 7 months old. The little one arrives here at 6:30 in the mornings. Her mom drops her off on her way to work. Some days I get up early to take care of the baby so my wife can get a bit more shut-eye. When I do, part of the task is to feed her a bottle.
As I sit there in the La-Z-Boy reclining rocker feeding her the bottle in the morning dark and stillness, I am overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness. What am I thankful for? So many things, but in particular at that moment, I’m thankful that we have plenty of food for the little one to eat. I sit and watch her drink and feel so blessed that she isn’t lacking for food.
And I wonder: how many millions of little babies and children went to bed without any food yesterday? How many will have nothing to eat this morning? How many mothers are out there whose own nutrition and health and dehydration has caused them to lose their milk and be unable to nurse their child? How many of them are holding their baby — at that precisely moment when I am holding my granddaughter — and thinking desperate thoughts: “How will I get anything for my baby to eat today?”
What I want to do now is to invite you into a world of imagination. All you have to do is pause for a few moments and imagine a world where every baby has food to eat. Imagine a world where no child goes to bed hungry at night. Imagine a world where no child is abused. Imagine a world where no child sleeps, shivering, in the cold (indoors or outdoors) because they have no shelter or warm clothes or blankets. Imagine a world where no child suffers water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diptheria, dysentery or any other of the many diseases spread by drinking bad water.
Is such a world possible? I know this: the reason that people starve to death, especially children, is not because there’s a shortage of food grown in the world. That’s not it. The problem is with the distribution of the food that is grown. As Mother Teresa said, the reason people are starving is “because we don’t share.” That may sound simplistic, and there are questions of distribution and the like — but it’s basically accurate. The food exists. The problem is getting it to those who need it urgently, and then teaching them how to become self-reliant for food. Of course, when crops are wiped out by drought or storms, urgent needs arise that must be addressed, but by and large the problem is one of distribution and not of production.
It may not be possible to solve all the food, water and protection problems that affect children in the world, but I also know this: we can solve some of the problem. And each time we do, a child lives for another day, week, month, year…perhaps an entire lifetime rather than dying miserably.
That imaginary world is part of what drives our vision at I Am 2 Partners, Inc. How did the world eradicate polio? Jonas Salk imagined a solution, a cure, a world without polio. How did the world eradicate smallpox? Someone dreamed of a world without smallpox, and the WHO set about making that vision into a reality.
We may not succeed on the level of Jonas Salk or the WHO, but if we succeed for a few, isn’t that better than not dreaming, or not imagining, or not trying to solve the problems? We think so. We believe you think so, too.
Join us in making that imagining reality, won’t you? Visit our web site at iam2.org and support one of our two current projects: I Am 2 Internal Expenses (and help us create a launching pad for countless worthy projects) or the Bright Future Children’s Home (support the desperate needs of an orphanage in Kenya).
Imagine all the children living life with food, water and protection…and then let’s make it reality!