Soaring food costs force Ethiopian children out of school

[inanna]

Source: The Telegraph

Until two years ago, before the rains failed and the price of maize tripled, Alem Tesfu dreamt that her daughter Ager would one day finish her education at the village school and start work as a nurse.

"We used to pray to God that Ager would study hard and make something of herself so she could serve her community," Mrs Tesfu said. "Now our animals are all dead and we eat only one meal a day. We just pray that we will not starve."

Ager now spends her days foraging for edible weeds, while her schoolbooks hang in a plastic bag in the family's thatched hut, a reminder of her ambitions.

This year, slums and villages across Africa have similar stories to tell of dreams ruined by hunger. With global food and fuel prices surging, children have been taken out of school and put to work by desperate parents. The future of one of the continent's great development success stories – education – is in doubt.


Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/ethiopia/3023936/Soaring-food-costs-force-Ethiopian-children-out-of-school.html

[That Is Quite Enough]

1. That is so devastating.

I'm at a loss for words. :cry:

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Horrible. I guess the US won't have funds to assist Ethipia because Bush has blown it.

[izquierdista]

3. "Edible weeds"

Those aren't "weeds", they are the solution to the problems caused by globalization. People in these countries need to be encouraged to use ALL available sources of food, not just what has been developed to suit factory farms in Europe and North America. Globalization has made these countries dependent on imported food, when they could be self-sufficient if they were to return to cultivating indigenous plants. A few of the hundreds of possible crops are in the following references:

Grains: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309049903
Vegetables: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11763
Fruits: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11879

And the added benefit is that these foods are FRESH, not picked unripe and shipped thousands of miles, so of course they taste better!

[ticked]

4. This is sad

My 17yo daughter went to africa to help build a school last year, and she was devistated by how the kids in the village would go days without any food to eat (and they never complained). She had alot of trouble eating her meals because of it. These people just want simple things in life, food, clean water and an education. All things most americans take for granted.

[OakCliffDem]

5. Kick