Guest blog: “I know it’s my problem too”

Merry Raymond is a #ShareNiger blogger. A mother of six children; she has four girls, one baby boy and a loving little boy who sadly didn’t stay. You can read her blog patchofpuddles.co.uk or follow her on twitter at @merrilyme.

Safe in my home, surrounded by all of the everyday problems of a dishwasher overfilling with soap suds and getting all the children to ballet and rugby each week without compromising family time, it is easy to get overwhelmed by my little world. If I turn on the television I see conflict, pain and suffering; fluffy entertainment is easier on the heart than acknowledging disaster, death and war. I do care but I didn’t know where to start. I know it’s my problem too – I didn’t know how to help.

The video made by the #ShareNiger trip of Roukayatou changed my perspective; despite having done her best to provide for her family, Roukayatou had found herself in talons of the food crisis, trying to feed her family of five on a pack of baby food. They were facing starvation due to an accident she could not have prevented and a rain shortage she can neither plan for nor control.

Ask any group of mothers to imagine an hour locked in a room of hungry toddlers and you’ll see the whites of their eyes; Roukayatou’s story keyed into my heart in a new way. I’ve had the experience of watching one of my children fade to death because of something I could neither understand nor change. I felt her fear but I also saw her humanity; a mother as weary of the wails of hungry children as of worrying and being hungry herself. A mother facing the possibility that eventually her children will not even have the energy to cry.

West Africa is gripped by yet another food crisis. Unimaginable numbers of people going hungry, needing vast quantities of food to be brought in to save them. It is disheartening to watch the news as yet another year of failed crops brings another crisis. Weakened children suffer quickly because communities struggle to get good water and grow food in difficult conditions. There is something particularly bitter about children dying in preventable circumstances.

I watched Roukayatou’s video with parent blogger friends while the #ShareNiger trip was still in progress and one phrase galvanised us all; “What can we do?” Roukayatou’s story touched so many hearts in a few minutes; we all identified with her. Blogging, tweeting, using Facebook – it can seem facile from the outside but it can make change. On this occasion we changed lives through group sponsorship. Where a full child sponsorship was out of our current financial reach, via social media more people heard about our efforts and finally 11 children were sponsored. Also, some of that money will go towards their West Africa appeal, where the UK Government is matching these appeal donations pound for pound. Looking forward, it’s a phenomenal amount of money pledged from a moment of solidarity with one woman. We all recognised ourselves and our hopes in Roukayatou and saw how we were going to change things for the better.

My four daughters pored over the details of the 11 children when they arrived; we read the details as we ate our lunch, the irony evident to us all. We weighed out baby rice and saw how much Roukayatou was feeding her family on. We’ve looked hard at how we speak of having no money but fritter away pounds and tried to imagine how those children would feel if they could visit this house, filled with books, toys and food.

What changed for me was properly understanding that across the world there are mothers who will fight for one more day with their child, even without hope. No loving mother wants to feel the gut wrenching despair of that loss. I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to help raise a little boy somewhere in Niger; to afford him some of the money I would have spent on my own son had he lived. It matters to me to have found a way to prevent that loss happening to someone else.

While World Vision fights to break the hunger cycle in West Africa, bloggers are getting ready to speak out again. As the crisis continues in West Africa it is robbing children of their childhood. Instead of spending time in school, children are having to look for work. Conflict in neighbouring Mali is forcing families to move across the border and live in refugee camps. And rather than playing outdoors, kids are focusing on their next meal – that small amount of rice – to feed their bellies.

We want to get people talking about this. Next week we will be asking people what childhood means to them. Perhaps it’s a nostalgic memory from your own childhood, or maybe it’s something that your children remind you of every single day. We want people to speak about this and be creative to raise awareness of the childhoods currently being lost to hunger in West Africa.

If you would like to help these children in West Africa, please consider donating to World Vision’s West Africa appeal. Every pound donated is a pound matched by the British Government – helping to reach thousands more people.

Thank you to all of the families who have come together to use #bloggerpower to support #ShareNiger. Co-ordinating a communal sponsorship of eleven children has helped me see I can make a difference with my words, the small change of my pocket and the understanding that life events have brought me.

Sian at MummyTips who travelled to Niger and sent back the original #ShareNiger coverage.

Chris at Thinly Spread

Rosie at Rosie Scribble

Jax at LiveOtherwise

Kate at KateTakes5

Beck at TheMummyAdventure

Kelly at PrestonPrecious

Helen at The Petit Mom

Clare at Seaside in the City

Susan at SusanKMann

Aly at Plus2point4

Jacq at MyMumDom