RITE & REASON:Food is a fundamental right of people the world over, writes SR HELEN SPRAGG
GOD IS attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor, the stranger, the slave, writes Pope Benedict XVI in his Lenten message. The pope adds Jesus surely condemns the “indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine”.
I live with the poor in Rwanda and hear their cries for justice every day. Their human dignity is under constant attack because of their poverty. Lent is a time when we are reminded to think of others less fortunate than ourselves. But it is not our duty to simply feed the poor: it is our duty to empower them to feed themselves. Catholic social doctrine gives us the principle of subsidiarity.
In practice, this means we involve local communities in choices and decisions that affect the use of agricultural land and the right to food. This does not simply mean people have the right to be fed, but the right to access enough cash to buy food or land and resources to grow it.
Sufficient, healthy and nutritious food and water are fundamental rights.
Our work in Kirambi, a very poor rural community in southwest Rwanda, is making that a reality. Life here is hard for many people. Most have only one meal a day, but for some even this is a struggle. When food is short, it is the children who suffer most.
Some families find themselves in a desperate situation due to a shortage of land, as most families survive from subsistence farming on less than one acre. For others, malnutrition is due to lack of knowledge as to which foods a child needs and when.
Ntirubabarira Silas and Vuguziga Josee have two children, aged three and two. When the second child, Niyonsenga, was eight months old, he was severely underweight. Our social worker brought the family to our nutrition clinic.
Ntirubabarira received nutritional and agricultural education, so that maximum use could be made of the small plot of land the family owned. The little boy is now a healthy weight and the family is able to feed itself.
If people are hungry because of a shortage of land, our staff trains them on how to make the best use of land. Sometimes we give people credit so they can rent land. Trauma and conflict is common in the area, not only because of the extreme poverty and HIV, but also as a result of the genocide of 1994.
The pope reminded us recently that to conquer hunger we need to redefine the concepts and principles that govern international relations so as to answer the question: What can direct the attention and consequent conduct of states toward the needs of the poorest?
His conclusion, to which I bear witness in Rwanda, is our need to practise solidarity with the poorest in the name of common membership of the human family. Pope Benedict called on us to shoulder the burden of concrete responsibilities in meeting the needs of others, so as to favour the genuine sharing of goods, founded on love.
We must also be clear solving world hunger is not simply a question of charity. The right to food is a fundamental right of people the world over. During Lent, we eat from the bread of life through our communion with God. Let us remember the literal need a billion people now have for bread to sustain life. That would please God greatly.
Sr Helen Spragg, Medical Missionaries of Mary, runs the Kirambi Health Centre in Rwanda, supported by Trócaire. She has been doing so since 1998 within a community of over 20,000 people