Make a New Year Resolution to end hunger and change a life

20 December 2012

 For publication after 25 December 2012

Make a New Year Resolution to end hunger and change a life

With Christmas over and January fast approaching, many of us are already beginning to think about making a resolution or setting some personal goals for the New Year.

And while some of us may even stick to our resolutions, many more of us will set ourselves challenges that we cannot keep.

So why not this year make a resolution that’s both easy to keep and makes a life-changing difference to those less fortunate then ourselves?

In Africa millions of families will go to bed hungry each and every night. Farm Africa is a different kind of charity that is working to end this, not through more food aid and hand-outs but instead by giving African farmers the skills and know-how they need so they can grow enough food for their families – and have extra to sell at market.

You can do your bit – Farm Africa, has a whole range of activities you can get involved with that will make that big difference.

This year you could commit to hosting a coffee morning, arranging a cake sale, or getting your local school or church to take part in a welly-walk to raise funds for Farm Africa.

Or if you want to make a resolution to do something a bit more adventurous, you can run a marathon, or even climb Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro!

Or you can sponsor a farmers’ group: http://www.farmafrica.org/farmaid/

And while the resolutions we make this New Year will be important to us, they will not perhaps be as life-changing as whether we can put enough food on the table for our family or earn enough money to let our children go to school.

Leonila is a sesame farmer who is looking forward to 2013 with a sense of hope thanks to new specialist seeds that she - along with 1,000 fellow farmers in the Babati region of Tanzania - is soon to receive from Farm Africa.

Leonila shows one of her children the new seeds that will transform their lives.

The new seeds can help farmers to increase their harvests by 150% when compared to the older seeds traditionally used in the area.

And for families like Leonila’s, this can make all the difference between struggling just to buy enough food, and being able to pay for medical costs and school fees so that her children can have the education she never had.

She is therefore eager to get some of the new seeds as soon as they are available. And thanks to the new seeds - as well as farming training she has already received from Farm Africa - Leonila is now resolved to transform her family’s fortunes in 2013. She is busy coming up with ambitious plans for producing larger, healthier sesame harvests that will earn her enough money to give her children the education that, until now, has remained out of reach.

To find out how you can help others to make a life-changing resolution this New Year, please visit:

http://www.farmafrica.org/get-involved/

Ends

Notes to Editor:

Hi-res images of Leonila and other Farm Africa project work are available on request.

For further information:

For further information, please contact:

Matt Whitticase: mattheww@farmafrica.org.uk / t: 020 7067 1237

Matt Whitticase can be contacted on: +44 (0)7515 788456 between 24 December 2012 and 1 January 2013.