On Wednesday, September 26, 2012, Stone Ridge had the pleasure of inviting Erin Lauer, a Hunger and Livelihoods Communication Coordinator from Save the Children to speak to our community for our Poverty and Hunger Presentation. Ms. Lauer described poverty and hunger an interrelated, never ending cycle, those who are impoverished cannot afford food and thus their children go hungry. Because they grow up in a constant, irreversible state of malnutrition, these children are stunted, both in stature and in brain development, meaning that they cannot get better paying jobs to lift themselves out of their poverty, continuing the cycle, unless something interferes.
Save the Children does not stop at feeding people day to day. They provide vouchers for the impoverished communities to buy food at their local markets, work with rural communities to train the farmers to grow crops more efficiently and economically, help those with money to set up saving accounts and request loans from the organization, and provide job training for youth and women in communities. The latter decreases the amount of young girls who are forced into arranged marriages. As Ms. Lauer stated, her objective is to let kids be kids, to play and grow healthily and happily, and Save the Children’s programs does exactly that, each day making life better for the communities who need it.
