May 10, 2011
Innovation Meets Determination: Making a Dent in Hunger One Mile at a Time
ACDI/VOCA’s Flock Runs Ultramarathon to Save Sudan Nutrition Program
Can one international development program make a dent in the vast numbers of children, women and men who deal with too little food and poor nutrition on a daily basis?
Development organizations like ACDI/VOCA must ask themselves such questions as they seek evidence they are making a difference in the lives of the people and communities they serve, especially when big-picture numbers tell a sobering story.
The dedication and innovation of one ACDI/VOCA staff person in Southern Sudan, coupled with the support of local government and community demand, reminds us that one program—and even one person—can inspire a different way of thinking that leads to change.
And it is often that difference in thinking—new community demand for agricultural resources, local governments organizing to support their communities, staff’s innovative thinking—that best defines success.
Hunger Rises in Southern Sudan
Southern Sudan continues to rebuild its economy after a protracted civil war that displaced and killed millions of people. The extreme losses eroded the area’s agricultural capacity, which when combined with devastated infrastructure and limited government services, has led to high rates of hunger and malnutrition.
ACDI/VOCA, through several USAID programs, has worked in Southern Sudan since 2005 to help the government rebuild agricultural productivity and food security. Yet, as the region has moved closer to gaining its independence this July, ever more refugees are returning to Southern Sudan, straining the region’s tenuous safety net.
Instead of hunger numbers declining, they are rising. The U.N. World Food Program reports that the number of people who need food aid in Southern Sudan quadrupled this year from 1.1 million to 4.3 million.
Against that backdrop, ACDI/VOCA agriculture specialist Jim Flock and his team have worked steadily as part of the Building Responsibility for the Delivery of Government Services (BRIDGE) program—of which Winrock International is the prime implementer—to develop local agricultural expertise and productivity.
How to Save Nutrition?
BRIDGE focuses on three crucial food security components: increased food staple productivity, vegetable production for improved nutrition, and value chain trainings for better agricultural sales and income. Last year, the team trained 65 government extension agents, 34 producer organizations and 848 farmers on production techniques for cereals and vegetables. More than 700 households benefitted from these trainings.
But the dire resource strain imposed by refugees and internally displaced people—as well as rising prices in the transitional economy—has forced USAID to alter the BRIDGE food security strategy to increase the production of staples like corn and sorghum.
As a result, resources for vegetable production and training have been diverted to augment investments in cereal production.
Flock was determined to find a way to preserve the program’s support of vegetable farmers. Increased vegetable consumption is key to improving the nutritional status of food-insecure people, especially women and children. And thanks to the earlier BRIDGE trainings, the farmers themselves were asking for information and resources on vegetable production. They just needed the seeds and tools to put the knowledge into action.
Hard Work and Perspiration
An avid runner, Flock planned to run April 23 in the 42nd consecutive Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultramarathon, a race of 32.4 miles in Cape Town, South Africa, from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans. While out training one day, he was hit with the answer: Turn his running event into a fundraiser—via the VOCA Foundation Fund—and raise as much as $5,000 through appeals to family and friends, enough money to purchase seeds and tools for BRIDGE farmers.
Flock entreated Southern Sudan officials and got a government commitment to help distribute seeds and tools and provide support services via BRIDGE-trained extension workers.
“In speaking with the ministries, I realized they can use whatever support they can get right now,” Flock wrote in a February e-mail to his friends and family. “With our team’s relationships with each of the state ministries, my staff and I are in a position to monitor the funds and ensure they are being used appropriately and for a good cause.”
Flock trained for several months, running in hot, sticky Juba weather, and along traffic-congested streets. Over time, he even gained a following.
“Instead of cars honking and trying to run me off the road, I've gained such fame in my time on the streets of Juba that they now wave and shout various phrases of encouragement,” Flock wrote in March to his friends and family.
He finished the race in just over seven hours, and then, in his words, “hobbled around for about 72 hours like an old man who misplaced his arthritis medication.”
In the end, Flock raised more than $5,300 toward seed and tools for the Southern Sudanese farmers—a remarkable effort even among ACDI/VOCA’s generous staff.
Seeds, Tools Arrive Just in Time
“Right now, it is bone dry in the field, but the rains are approaching rapidly and the timing for the distribution of seeds and planting will work out perfectly,” Flock recently wrote to his community of supporters. Distribution begins in May.
“Families who will be supported through your donations will have a nice household garden where they can pick some fresh fruits and veggies as they prepare meals to celebrate the world’s newest country,” Flock wrote in his final update.
In a country with 4.3 million people struggling to get enough food to eat, the Flock community’s contributions to help farmers grow more vegetables are but a dent in Southern Sudan’s larger food security needs.
Still, that dent is a start to making a difference in the lives of area farmers.
Show Your Support for Sudanese Farmers
Support Southern Sudanese vegetable farmers in the BRIDGE program with seeds and tools, and donate to the VOCA Foundation Fund today. Please enter “Southern Sudan” in the dedication box on the donation page.
Flickr album: See more photos from Jim Flock's race.
Pictured at top left: ACDI/VOCA's Jim Flock (center) runs in an ultramarathon in Cape Town, South Africa, to raise funds to purchase vegetable seeds and tools for smallholder farmers in Southern Sudan.
