NY Daily News Oped on Congo Hunger Emergency

President Trump’s vulgar comments about Africa are bad enough. Far more disturbing is his lack of action fighting world hunger, especially that continent’s famine threat.

The United Nations just sounded the alarm of famine threatening the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This war-torn nation has millions of displaced civilians, many of them farmers. Without the planting of crops, food supplies are nonexistent.

War victims in the Congo need the assistance of the UN World Food Program, UNICEF and other relief agencies. But funding is dangerously low. Starvation will claim many lives unless we act now.

See my full commentary at the NY Daily News:

Rohingya Victims Need Food, Peace and Justice

Co-authored with Brenna Gautam, a J.D. Candidate at Georgetown University Law Center.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and having to flee your home with only the food and supplies you can carry, not knowing when or if you will ever be able to return.

Your homeland could be a paradise: its climate dips into lush tropical temperatures, and its mountain ranges soar to beautiful heights. But as a displaced person, heavy rains and heat slow your escape, and the mountains become a death trap, stranding thousands of your people without food.

No matter how dangerous escape is, you can’t go back: there is only “fires, bullets, knives” from where you came. So, you keep forcing yourself forward, stumbling onwards for miles over rough terrain. There is no end in sight, and the hope of finding safety as a refugee beyond your own borders seems idealistic at best.

This situation is playing out in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Myanmar. Conflict has erupted in Mynamar’s Rakhine state. The government is driving out members of the Rohingya minority: more than 200 villages have been burned and refugees have recounted harrowing stories of mass murder and rape.

See the full column at the HuffPost.

World Refugee Day Calls Us To Feed the Hungry

World Refugee Day (June 20) calls us to action to feed war and disaster victims who have been forced to flee their homes.

The United States must lead by increasing funding for food aid programs, not eliminate them as proposed by the Trump administration in its budget proposal.

See my full column at the Huffington Post:

Interview: Lorene Didier of the World Food Programme in Haiti

Haiti is one of the 45 nations needing emergency food assistance this year according to the US Famine Warning System. Natural disasters, including Hurricane Matthew, has worsened food shortages in the impoverished nation. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is Haiti’s lifeline for overcoming hunger.

WFP provides school meals to children to reduce hunger and improve class attendance.

See the full interview here:

Instead of sending weapons to the Middle East, we should be sending food

President Trump's new arms agreement with Saudi Arabia ignores the most urgent threat in the Middle East: famine.

Yemen is on the brink of starvation because of a civil war between a Saudi-led coalition and rebels.

Sending more arms to Saudi Arabia will strengthen its military machine to further wage war in Yemen. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, "many of the armaments we’re providing to Saudi Arabia will help them be much more precise and targeted with many of their strikes."
What we should be doing instead is providing food to Yemen.

See my full commentary at The Hill:

We Must Respond to South Sudan Famine

The United Nations declared famine Monday in parts of South Sudan, where 100,000 people are facing starvation. It could get much worse too with another million on the brink.

South Sudan, which has suffered immensely from civil conflict, could see over 5 million people living in hunger if no action is taken.

Read the full article at the Huffington Post:

Food Urgently Needed in War-Torn Yemen

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s plea for “humanitarian assistance throughout Yemen” must be followed with robust action by the U.S. and its allies.

There is a severe risk of famine in the impoverished Middle Eastern nation. The United States and other donor nations must increase their food aid to Yemen.

The United Nations World Food Programme says there are now 17 million people in Yemen struggling to find food, with about 7 million needing emergency aid just to survive.

Read my full article at the Huffington Post:

What do the American and Syrian Civil War Have in Common?

In the story Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara experiences the food shortages caused by America’s Civil War. Hunger is a horrible fate that no one should endure.

Scarlett knows this. In the famous scene from the movie she vows, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

The American Civil War, the bloodiest the country has ever seen, was more than a fight between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy. It was also a struggle against hunger.

See my full article at the Huffington Post

Help Mariam Get School Lunches Again

It’s National School Lunch Week in the United States. But school lunches are important to kids everywhere around the world. So let’s visit with one of these children in a land far away, the African nation of Mali.

Mariam is a 12-year old from Yelimane village in Mali. She’s had a tough life, losing her parents at a young age. She lives now with her grandparents and sister. They are poor in a country ravaged by conflict in recent years.

Read my full commentary at The Huffington Post.

Marines, WFP Fight Hunger in Haiti

Devastation. That describes Haiti following Hurricane Matthew’s trail of destruction last week. Hundreds of people were killed by the storm and thousands were displaced. Many have lost their homes.

The aftermath of the storm brings new threats, including a food crisis. That is why the U.S. Marines are teaming with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to bring emergency relief.

See my full commentary at the  Huffington Post

Yemen: The Forgotten Famine

Yemen has been in the news this week after Al Qaeda attacked a military base in the southern part of the country. Both the Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups are operating in Yemen, which has been in chaos from a civil war since last year.

But what has not made the news is the biggest threat of all to Yemen: famine.

See my full commentary at the Huffington Post:

The forgotten victims of Boko Haram terrorism need our help with food aid

On World Refugee Day today, let’s remember the starving war victims from Boko Haram’s reign of terror.

Think of the farmers in Nigeria who have been forced from their land by Boko Haram’s attacks. Think of the malnourished children in Cameroon, internally displaced with their families because Boko Haram crosses the border from Nigeria with its terror.

Read the full article at Cleveland.com.

Train for Next Season and Answer Pope’s Call to Action

Championships can be won, in part, during the off-season. When my cross country team at Elder High School in Cincinnati went unbeaten and won the state title, one of the reasons was the summer.

Either we would run on our own, or meet with teammates for an evening run. Everyone on the team definitely kept in shape during the summer. I would say most of my teammates ran at least hundreds of miles. That way when the season started we were already in really good condition and ready for the races!

Read the full article at the Huffington Post:

Pope Francis to make first visit to World Food Programme

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that Pope Francis will be visiting the agency's headquarters on June 13. This will be the first time a Pope has ever visited the WFP, which is based in Rome.

Read the full article at Examiner:

A Plan for Helping Syrian Refugee Children

Last summer in the New York Times I wrote about the importance of school meals for children victimized by the war in Syria. We can do so much more for them, as we did for children in Europe and Asia affected by World War II.

Lebanon is one of the main countries where Syrians have fled to during the last five years of civil war. But once the refugees arrive they face all kinds of challenges just to have the basics of food and shelter. They have little or no resources.

Read my full commentary at The Huffington Post.

How We Can Help Haiti’s Children During Drought Emergency

The news coming from Haiti is very alarming. The El Niño weather phenomenon has struck again, this time leading to a severe drought.

It’s been so bad for farmers that many have lost more than 82 percent of production. That is leaving Haitian families with low food supply. Any food that is available at markets is high priced.

See my full commentary at The Huffington Post.

Syria Must Allow Food to Starving Civilians in Darayya

We can’t let civilians starve to death because of this tragic civil war in Syria. But right now in the town of Darayya, in Southern Syria, thousands of innocent civilians have no food or medicine.

Read my full commentary at The Huffington Post:

Syria airdrops are “glimmer of hope” in darkness of war

United Nations advisor Jan Egeland said Thursday that the World Food Programme (WFP) made two airdrops in one day of life-saving food into the besieged Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor.

Read the full article at Examiner.

Food for Peace aids earthquake victims in Ecuador

The United States Food for Peace program is coming to the aid of earthquake victims in Ecuador. An initial donation of half a million dollars is helping the UN World Food Programme feed those displaced by the 7.8 magnitude quake.

Read the full article at Examiner.

Ecuador: earthquake victims receive food aid, more needed

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Thursday that emergency food deliveries are underway in earthquake-devastated Ecuador. It’s just the beginning of a larger relief mission as the 7.8 magnitude quake has left many families with little or no supplies.

Read the full article at Examiner.