During a recent trip to India, I found newspapers and television stations captivated by the story of a young boy who had fallen into a well. His name was Sonu, and he was just two years old. By the time I saw the story it had already been a couple of days. In the Mumbai airport, where I waited for a flight to Delhi, people were crowded around television screens, watching live reports from the scene. It was remarkable. Not just in the airport, but at the well itself, hundreds of people were gathered. The army had arrived on the scene, to try to rescue Sonu. The area was overflowing with people: soldiers, reporters, bystanders. I imagined all across the city and the state of Maharashtra, many more people following this story with great interest.
And it occurred to me that Sonu, though singular in the attention he received, was far from alone in his tragedy. Every day, all across India, tens of millions of children start each day at the bottom of a well. A well of hunger and malnutrition. And they end each day at the bottom of that same well. The army is not coming for them.
Who will rescue those children?
One of the fundamental questions of life is just what we will do, having found ourselves alive and self-conscious. Our life stretches before us, with needs and opportunities. We observe the state of the world around us and the things that happen as the days and years go by. We often find ourselves upset or unhappy about what we see.
Whether we feel it or not, the opportunity to accept responsibility and act is always there for us. It may be difficult to feel that we can change THE world, but we can always change OUR world. That is, the actions we take and the way that we choose to spend our time and the resources that we have available.
The Global FoodBanking Network was born because of several people with that belief and the will to act, most notably our Founder and President Emeritus Bob Forney. It depends on the generosity of individuals and organizations like you that have similarly chosen to act. To do what you can to bring about the change you seek in the world. Not to wait for someone else or something else to happen.
The past year has been one of remarkable growth and achievement. The Global FoodBanking Network has helped to launch a national food banking system in South Africa. We are well on the way to accomplishing this in India as well. We have helped spur additional growth and capacity in countries like Argentina, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom. In all of these countries, many more children like Sonu will be fed because of the work that you help us do. We have a long, long way to go, but with your help we will continue on this road that is wide and bright.
