Chelsea Wieber's blog

Rajan taught his father how to write his name and is now teaching his mother and older sister to do the same. Photo: Leah Hazard/Mercy Corps

Ninety-eight. That's the number of kids in Rajan Tiru's class. He's in class nine — the equivalent of ninth grade in the U.S. Next year he'll be in class 10 and will need to pass a big exam so he can continue his studies.

Rajan lives on the Maud Tea Estate in Assam, India. Both of his parents are permanent workers on the tea estate and can't afford to send Rajan or his siblings to private school, where they might have a chance at a better education.

I'm visiting a coaching centre on the Maud Tea Estate. Here and elsewhere in Assam, Mercy Corps is lending money to help people start or expand a business, tutoring high-school students and providing literacy classes for women. Much of this work is supported by Tazo Tea, our partner in helping improve life on tea estates in India.

The idea behind the coaching centers is to give students an opportunity to get the help they need to understand their schoolwork and ask the questions they don't get to ask in class. The classes are divided by grade level and are capped at 25 students, so that students get the opportunity for one-on-one help that they can't get at school.

I ask the class nine group if they have someone at home that can help them with their homework. Only about half the students raise their hands. The literacy rate among women in tea communities in this area is about 30 percent, and just a little better for men. For most of those that raise their hands, the only literate person in their family is a father or a brother. And because literate mothers are more likely to help their children with schoolwork than literate fathers, this means they're not getting a lot of help with their studies.

I try a different question and ask if any of them have applied the skills they've learned in school to help out their family or someone in their community. Everyone's hand shoots up. Some of them help their family with the finances, or help their mothers by going to the market. Others help their families by reading letters or important documents for their parents, or by helping their younger siblings with their homework.

Rajan is called on again and talks for a long time. When he is finished, the class breaks into a round of applause and my colleague David Ekka gets a chance to translate for me. Rajan's father finished only one year of school, so Rajan helps him by writing out a shopping list for his father to take with him to the store. He taught his father how to write his name so he doesn't have to use his thumbprint in place of a written signature. Now he's working on doing the same for his mother and older sister.

He continues, "I'm not a fast learner. If I could learn more I would teach my brothers and sisters and my community.... I will definitely help my community learn after I have finished my studies." I don't doubt this.

Several of these students will be the first in their family to finish class nine. And when I ask how many of them are going to make it to class 10, they all smile and raise their hands. They recognize how lucky they are to know how to read and write, and to get this far in their education.

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Terra Naomi was interviewed by CNN-IBN about her climate change concert in Kashmir. Watch the video to see a clip of Terra singing "Say it's Possible" in the snow!

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Thirty countries still need outside food aid, according to the latest report from the UN's food agency:

In sub-Saharan Africa 80 to 90 percent of all cereal prices monitored by FAO in 27 countries remain more than 25 percent higher than before the soaring food price crisis two years ago. In Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean prices are monitored in a total of 31 countries, and between 40 and 80 percent of these remain more than 25 percent higher than in the pre food-crisis period, according to FAO data.

"The high food price situation continues to give rise to concern for the food security of vulnerable populations in both urban and rural areas, as these groups spend a large share of their incomes on food," the FAO said.

In cooperation with the FAO, Mercy Corps distributed seeds to more than 12,000 people in Nana Mambéré Prefecture, Central African Republic. Photo: Jenny Vaughan/Mercy Corps

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This morning the G-8 announced an £12-billion pledge to boost food security in developing countries.

Earlier in the week it looked like the G-8 was going to commit £6-15 billion to the initiative, but leaders were compelled to increase their commitments after President Obama shared stories of his own families' experiences with hunger in their community in Kenya, reports the New York Times. The U.S. has committed £2 billion to the initiative.

Details are sparse right now. But Reuters reports that the funds will be used to purchase seeds, fertilizer and equipment to help boost agricultural production in developing countries, as well as support infrastructure projects like agricultural storage facilities. There will also be land and water management, and risk mitigation components.

G-8 and G-5 leaders pose for a group photo at the July 2009 summit. Photo: Alfredo Guerrero (flickr)

The Times Online points out that the initiative "will be one of the biggest aid shifts in decades and could be controversial in America, whose farmers are the largest exporters of some crops." It represents a shift away from short-term food aid toward long-term assistance to help countries meet their own food-security challenges.

There is some concern that over time, countries will pull back on their pledges. A G8 pledge made in 2005 to collectively increase yearly aid commitments by £30 billion by 2010 is well behind schedule.

The number of hungry people surpassed one billion this year, thanks in part to the economic crisis and the food crisis. Even though prices have come down from last year's peak, they're still historically high. So the need for action has never been greater.

Please sign One Table's petition, thanking President Obama for his leadership — and letting him know there's still more to do.

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Last week the UN announced that the number of people suffering from hunger now totals one billion worldwide.

Not too surprisingly, a BBC article points out that the vast majority of the world's hungry live in developing countries. Only 15 million are in the developed world. In contrast, 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa and more than two times as many — 642 million to be exact — live in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since the economic crisis hit, there are about 100 million more people that are hungry. The UN attributes this rise in world hunger to unemployment and low wages. This is turn hurts people's ability to buy and grow food.

Jacques Diouf, the director general of the UNFAO, focused on agricultural investment as one of the solutions to help developing countries address hunger issues. Diouf is quoted by the BBC as saying, "Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth."

At a time when need has never been greater, Mercy Corps has been able to expand our capacity to address hunger in the communities where we work.

The number of people suffering from hunger now totals one billion worldwide. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

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Farming communities in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta have always followed a cycle of debt. Each year, wealthy land owners would lend farmers money, tools and cattle needed to till the soil. After the harvest, the debt is repayed and the cycle continues.

Farming is important for delta communities. The Irrawaddy Delta produces more rice than any other region in the country. Nearly everyone is employed through rice production or the fishing industry.

So when Cyclone Nargis hit the delta about a year ago, the storm not only destroyed homes, fishing boats and agricultural fields, it destroyed livelihoods.

Nargis was the worst natural disaster Myanmar has ever experienced and racked up about $4 billion in damage. Some say the damage sustained in the Irrawaddy Delta was as bad as the Indian Ocean tsunami. Emergency aid from the UN, the government and NGOs has helped shelter and feed the thousands of survivors but there's still a lot of recovery work to be done.

Today, farmers looking to start over are caught in an incredibly frustrating situation: the wealthy land owners that used to lend money and tools lost everything as well, so now there is nobody to lend. Without cattle, tools and seeds, the farmers have little chance of ever getting ahead. Adding to the situation, prices for crops are down from past years. This leaves farming communities with few options, therefore trapping them in poverty.

I first learned about this debt trap in the Al Jazeera video below. The situation is so heartbreaking, but also too common in poverty-stricken communities. Mercy Corps has helped more than 7,000 families rebuild their rice paddies in the delta. We've also given more than 25,000 people small grants to help them earn an income, which in turn helps restart the local economy and helps free these communities from the cycle of debt.

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