Winner Second Prize PW Poetry Contest
These Children Who Have Suffered Many Harms
Poetry Writing Contest response
I hear your cries across the barren lands, The ghost of history comes to haunt again, Undaunted by a shabby show of hands, I won’t ignore the tears and hungry pain.
Belovéd children, shelter in my home, Dissolve your wounds in tender healing streams, No longer will your soul be left to roam Abandoned in the fields of broken dreams.
Come, step inside my heart of endless love, I shall console you, wipe away your tears, Create a heaven here, not up above, Your life is precious, grow beyond your fears.
I beg you, please embrace with open arms, These children who have suffered many harms.
World Hunger Day on Sunday 28 May inspired my second entry in the Poetry Writing Contest: to write a motherly poem in sonnet form.
I’ll tell you why.
The World Food Program reports around 345-million fathers, mothers and children face malnutrition, hunger and starvation — sometimes they survive on the brink of famine.
On 12 May, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said,
“The humanitarian response in Sudan and neighboring Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia was already significantly under-funded at the start of the fighting on 15 April. None of the UNHCR operations in these countries had funding covering over 15 percent of needs.”
As of 23 May, the United Nations’s $2.6 billion appeal for aid to Sudan, up from $1.8 billion at the end of 2022, is only 12 percent funded.
The underfunding forces UN agencies and NGOs to reduce the rations of the hungry to feed the starving.
This inequity enrages me because Ukraine has received $154.08 billion in humanitarian aid since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
This comparison is a staggering reflection of the cultural and racial bias which influences donor funding. I could mention past incidents in Africa where funding has been way below requirements. Some relate to climate change, for which the African continent is not responsible.
Let’s send our loving energy across the world by recalling the lyrics and music of We are the World produced in 1985, to raise funds for Africa — 38 years ago! The performers were younger then. Others have passed on.
Please pass the baton of love to a new generation.
Thank you for being here.
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