Since my return from Malawi to San Francisco three weeks ago, many of you shared colorful and expressive emotions about Project Peanut Butter.
You posed insightful, powerful questions.
At the heart of a number of discussions were/are central issues : the deep and relentless scale of human need in Africa, the fragile capacity of the earth to support an ever expanding population, and the true sustainability of a small, lightly funded, innovative nutrition program in a rural area where there is extreme poverty and limited capacity to grow food.
Some of you ask:
How can programs such as Project Peanut Butter truly solve the pressing, difficult, long-term challenges these children and these mothers face?
Even if the children are out of a nutritional crisis, what type of life will these children experience in the future?
Is it really worth investing in this type of an initiative?
You wonder out loud :
Does it make sense to save children from hunger when they return home each day to extreme poverty?
Of course, some questions you partially pose are more difficult for us to talk about.
Is malnutrition one of the natural ways the earth controls population?
In the long run, is it better for the more established global community, those with more resources, more power, and more capacity to affect change, to allow certain tragedies to happen?
What is the price we should pay to save a life, especially a life in poverty?
After all, some of you argue, maybe there shouldn't be so many people in Malawi.
It's fascinating to open ourselves to different perspectives.
Some of you feel strongly that every child, no matter where he or she is born, regardless of what level of poverty he or she lives with, presents a life worth saving and supporting.
This community of believers tends to see connection between all humanity, tends to feel empathy for all children, even children from vastly different cultures and dramatically different economic circumstances, and tends to want to take action when there is perceived inequity, injustice, tragedy, or crisis in the world.
This community tends to be idealistic, often impacted by emotion and hope.
This community yearns for solutions that hold promise, solutions that are effective and sustainable, even when problems are overwhelming, complex, and chronic.
This community tends to feel blessed by life circumstances and tends to believe that our place of birth, character of family experience, access to education, and access to material wealth may be more like a giant lottery than a tightly controlled, personally-earned path.
I can see strong reinforcements for this way of thinking. The earth's climate, oceans, food supply, air, wildlife, population impact, and other organic systems are tightly connected and linked throughout the world. In today's age, one man's simple daily action touches the lives of men in distant lands for many days to come. Clearly, much of our life experience is out of our control. From what I can tell, few of us had much say in the choice of where we are born. And, as far as I know, re-incarnation possibilities aside, we don't "choose" our parents, the home we are born into, or many of our childhood experiences.
There are, of course, other points of view.
Some perspectives shared bring a very, very different orientation to the problem of hunger and food security. Although it is difficult to express these types of ideas directly, I sense some of us hold deep seeded emotions that keep us away from emotionally or intellectually investing in these types of global issues.
To start with, deep inside, we may feel Africa's problems are Africa's problems.
Clearly, Africa's problems are big and long-standing.
With all the news reports of violence and self-interested dictators across Africa, it is easy to view Africa as dark, corrupt, and unyielding in need.
When we sit in this community of thinkers, we may point out hard facts.
We can talk about Africa's brutal history and the movement of millions and millions of people into geographic areas that are not able to sustain growth. We can speak about squandered resources and wasted foreign aid. We can argue that the earth cannot possibly support an ever-expanding and increasingly demanding population of poor, uneducated people. We can focus on the need to control birth rates in poor and less developed regions.
There are reasonable emotions and much truth within these perspectives.
When we see Africa through this lens, we tend to feel detached.
When we approach Africa's problems in this way, we tend to position sustained poverty and food shortages as unfortunate, uncontrollable forces.
This line of reasoning leads us to conclude that, given the earth's limited resources and massive population growth, famine and food insecurity are normal, unstoppable processes.
"If a child or an adult dies from lack of food, perhaps this is meant to be."
When we are conscious or unconsciously in this camp, "survival of the fittest and wealthiest" is the path of reason we softly, almost silently, argue.
We may not be politically correct, but when we feel this way, we sense we are right. We feel justified in non-action.
There is also a third community.
Many of us are not sure what we believe. Sometimes, we don't have the "bandwidth" to engage.
It is common for most of us to have a full plate of responsibilities and worries and hopes and challenges without thinking about kids living in poverty in a far off place like Malawi.
There are plenty of important issues to address in our own country, our own state, our own city, and our own homes!
Our hearts and heads may be overloaded.
The whole discussion around food, hunger, and RUTF therapy for children in extreme poverty may feel too complex, too uncomfortable. Our eyes may glaze over when these topics come forward.
As I ponder these different points of view, I find myself thinking about what it might be like to be a mother or father and work tirelessly for years and years and still fail to find a way to feed my young child and his/her siblings. I can't imagine the experience of watching my son or daughter "waste" away or swell in pain with edema.
I think about how different my life would be if I were born as a young child in a family that lived with extreme poverty.
Would I overcome these challenges?
I don't know the answer to this question. I know my path would be very, very difficult. It helps me to try to feel empathy and hope.
We are all learning and growing - trying to find our way along this bumpy path.
I certainly struggle to find satisfying answers to many of life's great questions.
How we feed and provide access to clean water for the most needy among us sits high on the list of global challenges. Roughly 2 Billion people live on less than $2 a day. About half these individuals live on less than $1 a day.
More and more, as my life evolves, I sit and run and wobble in the : "We are all connected and share a responsibility to support and care for each other" community. My sense is that each of us "makes a difference" with our actions, both intimate and international, as we interact with each other and the earth and choose our values and investments.
Sometimes, those with little in material terms can transform their world through the power of simple kindness and compassion. Several friends come to mind. Their hearts just glow with care for the world and those in need.
I believe just "being present" can be a tremendous gift. Most of us find it difficult to get out of our own world of yearning and pushing and driving to connect in a meaningful way with others.
My time in Africa allows me to pause and reflect on my own path. When I experience the intimacy and success of Project Peanut Butter's work, I walk away without a sense of admiration and inspiration.
In many ways, I remain an idealist.
The short history of Ready To Use Foods (RUTFs) presents a compelling story.
A small group of passionate, dedicated people with innovative, low cost tools and a firm commitment to change the world in the only way they know how - by supporting and transforming the life of one child, one family, at a time - pushed through obstacles and early failures and created a transformational approach to support children in nutritional crisis.
There is something quite captivating within this path.
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