hunger Zero

Let's make classrooms for the children!

There are 508 students from 1st grade to 7th grade studying at Kasaale Elementary School in Uganda. However, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students study outside under trees, as there are not enough classrooms for them. On rainy days, students cannot study. There are few days that they can study, especially during the rainy seasons from March to July, and again in November and December. Some students even quit going to school.

You can now see what it was like when in late September 2011, our managing director Hirohisa Seike and Hunger Zero special envoy to Africa Yoshihiko Akimoto visited a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya.

Can you imagine there being no rain for three years? That was what exactly happened in Somalia. "The last of my cattle died." Even though nomadic people are used to droughts, they lose their means of making a livelihood if their cattle die.

I visited a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. This camp has around 440,000 refugees.

Due to a severe drought not seen in 60 years in east Africa, the flow of refugees from Somalia to refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya is not stopping.
Many parents are forced to abandon their children. Others make it to camps only to be turned away. Graves of children keep on increasing.

Given this crisis in east Africa, from June 12-22,our managing director Hirohisa Seike and Hunger Zero special envoy Yoshihiko Akimoto (president of Pan Akimoto) will be visiting Kenya to assess the situation. A report of their assessment will be made on this year's World Food Day.

In the "Horn of Africa," consisting of countries such as Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, there is a severe food shortage due to drought. Currently over 13 million suffer from hunger.