SAP Feeding Knowledge

World Food Programme warns about a change for the worse

Serious droughts are exacerbating the food situation in the Horn of Africa region which is already tense due to high food and fuel prices. As a report by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) shows, more than 10 million people are affected by a drought in southern, central, western and north-eastern Ethiopia. According to the WFP’s observation, crop production is decreasing and livestock are dying. As a consequence, rural people are forced to migrate to towns for cheap labor, or to sell firewood and charcoal.

Another consequence is widespread child malnutrition which is one of the key problems in the region that needs to be tackled. That’s why support of school feeding programs is so significant for the overall development of the affected communities.

To give you an impression of how people try to cope with hardships connected to the food shortage, the story of Daniel Gedisha, an Ethiopian farmer, is a telling example. He has to deal with successive failures of seasonal rains which have destroyed his crops. Basically, the survival of his family would be threatened if it wasn’t for outside assistance - much of it provided by the WFP.

The global rise of food prices certainly made it harder for international help agencies to tackle the problem of hunger and the far-reaching negative effects for individuals and communities affected by it.

However, the World Food Programme’s updated figures about the impact of a 10€ donation (equalling not even 15$) illustrate that even such a little amount of money has a significant impact.

The contribution of 10€…

• Feeds one school child for 63 days in Laos.
• Feeds one school child for 70 days in Colombia
• Feeds one school child for 73 days in Nicaragua.
• Feeds one school child for 77 days in Ghana.
• Feeds one school child for 92 days in Kenya.
• Could feed one school child for 112 days in Ethiopia.

If these facts encourage you to donate you are most welcome to do so!

It is SAPlings time again! In Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Prague the next SAPlings day will take place on September 20, 2008! For Budapest and St. Ingbert the volunteer day will take place in October. In previous events, the help of the SAPlings was gratefully accepted by local charitable institutions, for example in Berlin (link in German).

For all interested SAP employees at the locations in Walldorf, Rot and Bensheim this SAPlings day is part of a larger campaign entitled “Wir schaffen was!” (“Let’s get things done!”) in which the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region is inviting all citizens to participate in the area’s first-ever volunteer day. Here you can have a look at the German website.

If you are a committed SAP-employee and if you would like to make a difference in the community you are living in, do not hesitate to get involved!

Raising awareness about the fact that more than 850 million people in the world suffer from hunger is the aim of a new campaign launched by the World Food Programme.

To give you a first-hand impression of the World Food Programme’s School Feeding initiative and its beneficial effect for the children of internally displaced families in Colombia, this podcast is very helpful: SchoolFeedingColombia.mp3.

What becomes clear is that fighting hunger and enhancing the children´s education go hand in hand - to the long-term benefit of not only the children but of the whole country.

If you would like to learn more about the political situation in Colombia and the fate of internally displaced people (IDPs), please have a look at the documents of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the Brookings Institution and the International Crisis Group.

Education is everything

Erika is 10 years old. She attends fourth grade at the Roberto García Peña Primary School, in Girón, province of Santander, Colombia.

Erika lives with her family in a very poor household. However, she says they share a beautiful house, because her mother keeps it comfortable and clean. Her father lost an arm in an accident a long time ago, even before she was born. After that, he has constantly been struggling trying to find a job.

The family used to live in a small town up north of the province. Her father owned a small farm and they had a decent and normal life. But unfortunately, armed conflict in the region forced them to move out and then they settled in Angulito neighborhood, a marginal area in Girón.

Erika goes to the school every single morning. Similar to David, she and her sister receive a daily meal provided by WFP School Feeding Programme.

“Having the lunch at school is great, because we don’t feel we have to be begging for food”, explains Erika. For that reason, the sisters can go to classes regularly, without spending precious time earning an additional income for their family’s survival.

Erika is happy to have the opportunity of learning. “Education is everything” she says. “With education you can compete, you can improve. We have a lot of needs, and probably education is the only way out of this situation. My parents are making an extraordinary effort to keep me studying, but we are sure it is worth the investment”.

After school, in the afternoon, Erika baby-sits a small child. “It is not a proper job”, she says, “but in my family we appreciate the extra income. It is not too much, but is enough to help. When I grow up I want to be a doctor, so I can help people. My father didn’t have the chance to see a good doctor when he lost his arm, and that’s why I want to be a doctor. Doctors help, and I definitely want to help.”

Erika looks nice and neat with the school uniform. She says that it was a gift from a lady her mother knows. “Being poor is one thing, but we still have dignity”, adds Erika with a big smile. “As my mom says, poverty is a state of mind. We have needs, but we are working to fulfill those needs. That’s why I am going to school!”

Food for A Better Life

David is 7 years old. He is attending second grade at the “Concentración Educativa El Salvador”, a small school located in El Pozón, a poor and marginal area located in Cartagena, Colombia.

David is one of Colombia´s over 3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) which makes the displacement crisis in Colombia one of the worst in the world. Most of the IDPs live in city slums where unworthy physical and social infrastructure, lack of labor opportunities and stigmatization make it extremely difficult for them to satisfy their basic needs.

In David´s case, his neighborhood is mainly inhabited by displaced people from different regions of Colombia - people from Chocó, from Antioquia, from Bolivar and from all over the country. David knows he is displaced, but he doesn’t remember the time when he and his family came to Cartagena. He says he was too small when his parents decided to flee because of the unsafe situation in his hometown Corozal. His mother is constantly looking for a job. Sometimes she finds short shifts as a maid, but this is very unusual. Most of the time she is at home taking care of David and his brother and sister. David´s father has an informal job at Cartagena´s market. He moves bulks from one truck to another. It is a hard and low-paid work. In a good day he can make two or three dollars, but normally after a 12 hours shift he barely receives one dollar.

Despite all these hardships, David is a happy child. He enjoys going to school every day. It is a place where he can play and learn where he has a lot of friends. Best of all, he and his 110 schoolmates receive a nice meal every day, thanks to the World Food Programme’s School Feeding initiative which is supported by the SAP Developer Network and the Business Process Expert Community Recognition Program.

David knows that with education everything is possible. That’s why he and his parents are proud of the fact that he is going to classes every morning.

Tags:

• BPX
• Corporate Citizenship
• CSR
• Food for Education
• SAP
• SAP Feeding Knowledge
• SDN
• WFP

After the volunteering initiative SAPlings has taken place on April 19th 2008, it is time to have a look at the feedback to this event. Both SAP employees and representatives of the involved organizations were asked about their opinion with regard to the success and possible shortcomings of the activities. The overall positive feedback may encourage more employees to take part at the next initiative on September 20th while at the same time providing some valuable inputs with regard to the organisation of coming events.

Below you find an overview of some facts and figures of the recent SAPlings event:

A total of 313 SAP employees together with their friends and families supported a variety of social and environmental projects. In the Metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar, 28 projects were supported by 225 helpers. Besides, the SAPlings were active in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Prague and Budapest. Altogether 2291 hours were spent on voluntary work to the benefit of approximately 1900 people.

According to the commentaries of SAP employees, 96% would recommend their colleagues to join the activities of which more than 71% would even “strongly recommend” to do so. Furthermore, a vast majority of more than 89% is very likely to participate at SAPlings again.

On the part of the participating organizations, a convincing 75% rated the SAPlings event with “1” on a scale from 1 (best) to 6 (worst) and the remaining 25% rated it with “2”. Perhaps more telling, however, are the comments of the organizations’ representatives. They indicate that one of the goals of SAPlings, which is to foster networks of trust between SAP employees and the local communities and institutions, has largely been achieved:

“Young people working in a ultra-modern area who still have interest for people in a nursing home, the necessary sensitivity and no fear of contact whatsoever - that impressed us very much.”

“We didn’t expect this kind of commitment.”

“In conversations during breaks we got an impression of how diverse and colorful the composition of employees is at SAP. Also, we could get a first idea of everyday work at the company.”

By and large, the encouraging feedback to this event makes us look forward to the next event of that kind.

Soaring food prices are affecting virtually everybody these days. However, in countries such as Somalia, the DR Congo, and Ethiopia where the World Food Programme’s help is urgently needed the effects are most devastating. When thinking about creative new ways to tackle global problems which cannot be solved easily by national governments, Web 2.0 or social media is likely to become more and more relevant.

The initiative of the SAP Developer Network and the Business Process Expert Community Recognition Program is an appealing example. Here, contributions by the members of the community - through blogs, articles, codes samples, tutorials, videos or forum posts - are turned into donations for the World Food Programme which uses the money to fund international school nutrition programs. Of course, these contributions won’t prevent global food prices from increasing. But it shows how powerful the tool of Web 2.0 can be in the realm of Corporate Social Responsibility.

The World Food Programme recently announced ‘hunger´s global hotspots’ and gives an overview of the hunger-related problems in specific countries. It also depicts WFP´s efforts to improve the situation against the background of the global increase in food and energy prices.