We give very specific information on what Cabrini University developed for our simulation. We hope this helps you, but feel free to modify and improve what we did. We tried to create an experience of the causes of food insecurity among rural farmers, steps they are taking to improve their lives and ways we as Americans can help.
There are five different main parts of the simulation. You will need from 10-15 Ambassadors or students to do the simulation as outlined here. Here are the five main parts of the simulation, how we set each part up, and supplies we needed.
An introductory display and handout that orients participants about what they are about to experience. (1-2 students)
Some hands-on activities to demonstrate what it is like to be a hungry farming family. (3 students)
A display of the very first steps out of hunger a farming community might take to improve their lives and move beyond subsistence farming. (3 students)
A display of longer-term steps farming communities take to stabilize their condition and begin to participate in the market by selling food and diversifying their crops . (3 students)
Learn about CRS’s LEAD THE WAY ON HUNGER campaign and advocate for government policies that aid farming communities around the world. (2-3 students)
1. Introductory display and handout (1-2 students)
For the introductory table, students produced a 1-page handout that provides an outline of the simulation and the steps participants will go through. We recommend giving out the handout to participants.
Prop: large screen computer to show video, handout
First student’s script:
In poor countries around the world, have you ever thought about how farmers can actually be the most hungry people around the world? Did you know that 690 million people suffer from hunger each year? In Kenya, farmers struggle to get a single meal for themselves and their families each day. These people are some of the hardest workers on the planet but they have the least. They have nothing to fall back on. They are working on their first steps out of hunger by uniting with their communities, diversifying their crops, and trying out new strategies with planting. Alexa will now explain the simulation.
Second student’s script:
In this simulation, you are going to walk through the life of smallholder farmers struggling to rise above the poverty traps they seem stuck in. . These people are not lazy nor are they just sitting around waiting to be pulled out of poverty. They are fighting against adversity every day and are eager to learn and succeed to reach some sort of self-sustainability. They have unfortunately been passed by agricultural advances and resources that some parts of the world have enjoyed. Take this sheet and it will guide you through the simulation. You will see what their day-to-day lives consist of and hopefully understand what factors are keeping them from progressing. You may start with my friend Sophia over here who will show you what it is like to be a struggling farmer in Kenya. She will explain what is the “Poverty Trap” subsistence farmers face (refer to handout).
Shown are the conditions of people who experience chronic hunger: poor and unstable diet, unclean water, poor quality soil, poor farming tools.
2. Causes of global hunger (3 students)
Prop List:
Ugali (cooked earlier) or oat meal or corn meal and crock pot. Kale cooked ahead of time. You could use any low-nutrition food that poor people eat in various countries. We had a student from Kenya, so she cooked Ugali.
paper plates and spoons
large pot with water on floor for washing hands that gets dirtier as more use it
simple, old, or broken gardening tools like an old rake
3-stone fire pit with sticks
dead corn stalks -– we cut some from a farm.
dry seeds (corn),
dried out clay or stony dirt. Dig up dirt from an empty lot or just get dirt and put a lot of stones in it.
small plants in pots if you have time to sprout some seeds
a few dried corn on the cob
First student’s script:
So as you can see we’re stuck in this poverty trap. Before I give you some ugali to try, let’s get you guys washed up in our bucket of water. Now for the first person it’s fine, but for everyone else, you’re sharing diseases and germs with each other. Now that you’re cleaned up, here is some ugali and kale. It is our only source of food that we really have. (Give each participant a serving) Does this look like a balanced diet for anyone? Ugali is made from cornmeal and water. We grow the corn on our farms and we only can grow enough for ourselves. We try to store corn for the entire year but it usually lasts for a part of the year to have enough for three meals a day. After a few months, we go down to two meals, and then in the Hunger Season, we each just one time a day. One of the reasons we can’t get ahead is because of our poor, worn-out soil. Ayanna will now help you learn more.
Notice the broken hoe, poor quality soil, stunted plants.
Shown are the conditions of people who experience chronic hunger: poor and unstable diet, unclean water, poor quality soil, poor farming tools.
Participants are given a plate of simple food from a poor country, served from a crockpot.
Dirty water for washing hands, crock pot with ugali or corn/oat meal, paper plates and spoons on table. On floor is a container with clay or stony dirt along with broken or old tools.
Second student’s script:
Since we can only produce maize (or corn as it’s called in the US), as farmers, we need to be really resourceful with how we plant our seeds. Usually, the soil we have is very dry, so planting seeds is beyond a challenge, and the seeds that we have are not that great either. (SHOWS SEEDS) Just look at them, see how shriveled up and dry they are. So because of this, most of what we plant does not grow well and is not harvested, so we have to make the best of what we have, which is very little. As you can see (SHOWS SIMPLE TOOLS), the tools we have are not that useful, which makes planting even more difficult. Besides these tools and the dry soil, we cannot depend on the weather as much either. Wafula, or the Rainy Season, is a season that we normally expect to deliver more than enough rain to keep our soil fertile for better harvest. But even then, we cannot depend on that either. Sometimes during the season, we will go for days without any rain. Then there will be other days where there’s too much rain which causes flooding and washes away our crops. We are, unfortunately, not in that season right now. So right now, we’re stuck in this position where we can only hope for the best.
Before I start planting, just feel the soil right here (GESTURE TO SOIL) so you can see just how dry it really is. We have some plants already growing there, but they’re really stunted, so I doubt they’ll make it to harvest. So because we don’t have much to eat, imagine what that does to our children. When they sleep at night, we need to lay them on their bellies so they don’t have to feel how empty their stomachs are. This is all we have to work with, this is what our lives are like each day.
Effect of climate change on formerly fertile area of Ghana.
Now Matt will explain to you the bigger picture of what we have to endure every day.
Third student’s script:
Sophia and Ayanna are subsistence farmers, which means they can only grow enough crops to feed themselves and their families, but this is not their fault. So do you see that there is an issue here? This is happening right now to millions of people around the world. A staggering 690 million people suffer from hunger. Around the world, about 25,000 people will die from hunger… each day. About 25% of Kenyan children will suffer from stunting due to a lack of nutrition.
So you just tried the ugali. There are very limited nutrients, so imagine the effect of eating such limited nutrition each day.
You washed your hands in the water. Did that seem healthy to you?
Now let’s think about education. Parents will pay for their kids’ uniforms to go to school, but they might get sent home because they need more money to pay for the supplies.
Let’s take a look at the trifold. (Photos from CRS site or download pictures here by right clicking on photos.)
Trifold has pictures to go along with the 3rd student’s script.
This is what people’s houses will look like. Notice that there is no physical door. This leaves it open for rodents and all types of other parasites to get in and get to the food. The best place to keep the food is in a dark corner of the bedroom.
Ayanna told you all about the poor soil. This has been caused by climate change and it makes it hard to grow plants. As you can see here, we have small plants attempting to grow, but it is not working very well. It also doesn’t help that the only tool we have is a makeshift hoe. This is really just a piece of metal on the end of a stick. As Alexa had told you, it is not their fault and those suffering from hunger are slowly climbing out of the poverty trap.
Trifold has pictures to go along with the 3rd student’s script.
Chris, Marcus, and Sean will now show you the first steps out of hunger.
3. First steps out of hunger (2-3 students)
Props:
A small group of different foods such as corn (maize), beans. kale
a few better quality farming tools than used in prior scene
Now Sean, Marcus, and I will show you a few of the first steps out of hunger that smallholder farmers might use. First steps may include obtaining better seeds through a food co-op, better planting methods, soil improvements, better hygiene methods, and better tools. One method of planting may be carefully spacing seeds so that the plant’s growth does not interfere with its neighbor’s. Tiny amounts of fertilizer can be placed in each seed hole. These may seem like small changes, but it can dramatically improve food yield. Using compost in the soil will also increase the soil’s ability to hold water longer and make plants grow with more nutrients (SHOW A CONTAINER WITH RICH-LOOKING SOIL).
Farmers can plant a wider variety of plants in addition to corn and rotate the plants each growing season (SHOW EXAMPLES OF OTHER VEGETABLES THAT MIGHT BE GROWN. SEE PICTURE).
Eventually the farmers may be able to afford fertilizer to produce better seeds(SHOW SOME FERTILIZER). The farmers may be able to develop a drip water system from stored rain water to carefully use the precious water in the dry season.
They may also build a tippy tap for hand washing. A tippy tap lets people wash their hands with a small amount of running water and soap. Just put your foot on the stick and tip the bottle. (How to wash your hands with the tippy tap.)
A tippy-tap. By stepping on the stick, you will pull a string attached to the jug of water. A bar of soap hangs by another string. With this simple method, people wash their hands in clean water.
Tippy-tap
We made a tippy tap for the simulation
Sean’s script: The country of Kenya and other African nations are adapting to the climate change that is happening around them. Their rainy season is only 3 and a half months long and it’s very unpredictable. The basic tools of Western farming, like a tractor, advanced seeds, or banks for loans, are not often present for small-scale farmers. The people of Kenya and other countries now need to adapt to the dry soil and constant droughts, but a way to grow better crops is the killing of all the weeds around the crops, enabling plants to grow without competition (HOLD A HOE USED TO RAKE OUT WEEDS). Obtaining a few chickens can also produce not just eggs but their droppings can be used for compost, along with chopped up weeds and dead plants. (COMPOST )
Here we see some of the first steps out of hunger: better quality seeds adapted to current conditions, soil improved by composting, fertilizer. These result in healthier plants and a more diverse diet.
Notice that we have tarps under areas where we have dirt or water. We planted seeds about a month before the simulation. Beans grew well. Corn all died. It was November!
We got a few better garden tools in contrast to the broken ones in the previous station.
4. Long-term steps communities take to get out of hunger.
Ryan’s stript:
The previous group just told you about the first steps poor communities take to pull themselves out of long-term hunger. Now I will explain how farmers make long-lasting changes to improve their lives. Here we have a SILC box. SILC stands for Savings and Internal Lending Community. These communities are set up and run by the community itself. Remember, poor people don’t have access to banks for savings and loans, so they start their own. These groups have been highly successful. Each community consists of various members who regularly contribute a certain amount of money to the group fund. The money is then placed into the SILC box that you see Luke holding. This box has three locks and three members of the community have the keys with a fourth member without the keys who takes the box home with them after every meeting. This is done to prevent theft of money by members. If a member of SILC needs money for an emergency they have to ask the community for a loan. Then the community votes on it and if approved then the person is given the money. Once you receive the money you are required to pay the community back plus interest. At the end of the year each member is paid back from the fund, and then it is decided whether the community will continue next year, or if they should invite new members.
1) One of the SILC leaders unlocks the savings box in the presence of the community. 2) The community keeps accurate records of all transactions. 3) Funds are divided into separate accounts to be used for s
Ryan:
Let’s hear from a successful SILC member:
Tianna:
Being a part of SILC helps members learn skills such as money management and leadership skills since the community is entirely member run. Thanks to SILC, we farmers now have enough money to build a latrine where we can go to the bathroom and be more sanitary. We farmers also have the opportunity to open shops. Because of our savings through SILC, we farmers could purchase cell phones so we can conduct online money transfers. To get the money onto our phones, we go to a stand that will put our money onto our phone account. Once the farmers have the money on the phone we can use this money to purchase services that we need for daily life and pay bills.
I’ve been a member of SILC for two years now. My friends and I meet with our SILC group once a week and each week we add a little bit of money to our savings. Since I have been with the group, I have grown financially. Whenever I needed financial assistance SILC helped me. Every year my group gives me back what I saved up over the year plus some of the interest our group made through lending. With that money I managed to improve our home and pay school bills.
Luke’s script:
Tianna spoke about her cell phone. Here in Kenya, even before there was Venmo or any sort of online money transferring in the US, people in poor countries like Kenya were using simple cell phones to transfer money. Banks don’t want to serve poor people so the idea of using cell phones as a unique kind of online banking system was born. Farmers in Kenya use these simple phones to pay bills, find out the market price they can sell their farm produce for, and to find out weather forecasts.
5. Reflection and Advocacy (2-4 students)
The Ambassadors at the Reflection station should continue to help the participants process what they have learned in light of Catholic Social Teaching. We have handouts of CRS Guiding Principles or download Key (10) Principles of CST-1page. Here these ambassadors can lead a dialogue with participants about what they learned and their emotional reactions to the process by which poor communities are progressing.
Supplies for the Advocacy table. We have tried several forms of social media and advocacy.
The most basic is a poster board that asks if you learned from and understood the simulation. We provide an ink pad for thumbprints or Sharpies for participants to sign their name.
We have computers for participants to email Members of Congress. See Advocacy tab. This takes longer to do. If you are expecting a large number, you could hand out a sheet of how to do the advocacy at home.
