Oh, it’s almost that time of the year again. When those delicious chocolates are whipped out, flowers are in-demand, romantic gestures expected and us single folk look on, thankful we don’t have to plan anything!
Yep, Valentine’s Day is almost here and while some of us may not be wining and dining this Sunday, there are many different kinds of love that we can all celebrate. One of the most cherished and talked about bonds is that shared between mother and child.
Unconditional, priceless, loyal, limitless and sometimes downright annoying (who hasn’t thought how did she know that?), a mother’s love knows no limits and for those of us who aren’t parents, can never be properly understood.
Sadly though, love alone can’t always protect the world’s children.
Consider the 400,000 kids in Ethiopia in need of emergency food aid due to the growing El Ñino weather crisis that is leading the country towards severe drought conditions. Throughout 2016, it’s predicted the total number of people affected will rise to 15 million, including 1.7 million children and lactating mothers.
Imagine being the mother of a child under these circumstances where the extreme weather conditions increase the risk of malnutrition, death or injury. Or living in the Ethiopian regional state of Oromia where sparse rainfall has led to a long summer, resulting in intense droughts and inadequate food supplies. Consequently, many local school children have been forced to drop out of school.
For kids in Laos though, dropping out of school is the least of their parents’ worries given it is the most bombed country per capita in the world. During the Vietnam War, over 270 million cluster munitions were dropped on Laos with 30 per cent failing to detonate, remaining live today as a result. These unexploded bombs claim many lives each year and are responsible for too many kids dying.
