Email This Page

Children of Haiti waiting for meal

In October of 2011 I went to Haiti with a delegation from SOAWatch, where over a year earlier an earthquake had devastated the country. Millions of dollar from around the world poured into the country but the country was much the same as right after the earthquake. Officials from non-governmental agencies (NGOs) drove around with big vehicles over the barely travelable roads. One of the places we visited was a tent where a meal program run by the What If Foundation offered children a hot meal, mostly rice with small bit of meat, once a day after school. Hundreds of children sat around bare tables waiting for the meal to be served. Some children had containers to take some of the rice home for their parents and elders.

Today I went to a basketball tournament my grandson team was playing in at a nearby school. On the front lawn of the school were signs announcing a free meal program for children during the summer when they do not get meal in school? I imagine this food is better than for children of Haiti but just the thought that we need to provide food for children of families in need is a chilling one. A country that can pledge and extra billion dollars for military aid to Europe and give Israel about 7 million dollars a day for military aide to occupy Palestine cannot provide families with basics to prepare food, like a refrigerator or stove. Landlords used to provide basic appliances with rent. Now they do not. Low income families can get good food but how do they store it and prepare it? More and more children in the USA go hungry each day and more and more schools are the place for a meal.

Children go hungry in Haiti and the USA. Food is easier to get in this country with food pantries and such, but it is difficult to preserve and prepare. When there was million dollars floating around from the closing of my Catholic Church in North Central Milwaukee I wrote a parable of what could be if the money was put in a sustainable works of mercy fund for refrigerators and stoves for low income persons. Not one penny made it to those in need for food or appliances. Where did the 3.6 billion in relief and recovery aide to Haiti go?. Where did the million plus go for closing another Catholic church in North Central Milwaukee? Where is the 3.2 million dollars going that the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Milwaukee seeking from bankers going? The money from all these sources go to bankers and rich not to the poor and marginalized. In the meanwhile the children of Haiti and the USA go hungry.

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.