“Our mother was supporting us. She was trying to bring us here,” said Margaret. But despite their courage and her mother’s resourcefulness, they couldn’t all escape.

“They shot one of our brothers. He died,” Margaret said simply. “We started the journey again. Those people were following us, shooting at us.”

Margaret was never so relieved to complete a journey as the day she stumbled into the Kiryandongo refugee camp in Uganda. For the first time in months, she was safe.

Pastor Solomon, Feed The Hungry’s Africa Director, said Margaret’s experience was not unusual for those fleeing the violence in South Sudan.

“The story of the children who we see in the camp is very troubling,” he said.

“Most of them walked through the bushes for hundreds of miles… facing starvation on the way. Any bad thing that you can imagine, running from war, these children have seen. Some of the girls have been raped. Some have jumped over the bodies of their own parents.”

At Kiryandongo refugee camp, Margaret could begin to rebuild her family life and go to school. But a new enemy was waiting. Hunger.

Get a glimpse of life in Kiryandongo… and see why a full life feels good.

 

While her family received shelter and supplies to begin growing crops, they had little to trade in the marketplace. Food was scarce and hunger a constant presence. At school each day, hundreds of students wandered away in search of something to eat.

Margaret well knew the restless, desperate feeling. It was almost impossible to sit still and concentrate on the teacher’s words when her stomach was empty: “In class, when you’re feeling hungry, you don’t normally attend the lesson.”

But through the support of Feed The Hungry, Margaret became one of more than 400,000 children in 23 countries to receive a hot, nutritious meal every day at school.

“With Feed The Hungry, we eat lunch at one o’clock. We come and enjoy the food under these mango trees… It tastes so sweet and delicious!”

Feed The Hungry provides fortified, nutritious meals to protect children like Margaret against malnutrition, help them to grow, and give them the energy they need to concentrate in the classroom.

The impact is plain to see.

“You can see the children when they arrived – reddish hair from malnutrition, skin that looked sick,” said Pastor Solomon. “Now, you see the children and you can see hope.”

Take Away Hunger Day on 24 August aims to supercharge the effort to continue feeding hundreds of thousands of children like Margaret.

Media organisations across Australia are banding together to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” (Proverbs 31:8).

This national event has a simple aim – to encourage generous Australians that a gift of just $6 can feed a childlike Margaret for an entire month through Feed The Hungry’s school-based program.

“I’ve just returned from Kiryandongo and the situation for children like Margaret is truly confronting,” said Ben Evans, National Director for Feed The Hungry Australia.

“The stark truth is that the number of people without enough food to eat is racing towards 1 billion. And that’s why I’m incredibly grateful to see so many passionate partners jump on board to respond to the very real and important issue of hunger.”

With support to go to school with a full belly, Margaret is aiming for big things from her education.

“I want to be a great person in the future. That’s why studying is very important to me,” she said. “Sometimes I teach the younger ones at home when there are things they don’t know.”

This resourceful young woman says when her time in the classroom is complete, she will be ready for new dreams, new journeys, new adventures in life.

“I’d like to become a pilot. It would be a great job,” said Margaret. “I like studying the maps of East Africa. We learn about it in school. And how people travel to other places… I’d like to be transporting people to other places.”

You can help feed a child like Margaret for a month for just $6. Visit Feed The Hungry now for more information.

For more information about how you can take away hunger, watch this video: