View some my work for Action Against Hunger from September 2022 through today.
To read all published pieces, visit Action Against Hunger’s website.
Our team also pitches pieces to major media outlets. See our wins here: Media Mentions | Action Against Hunger; including a recent piece we collaborated on for Newsweek: Access to Clean Water—Confronting a Deadly Inequity | Opinion (newsweek.com).
March 2024
How One Legume is Transforming Lives in Zambia’s Western Province
Memory Chilombo Chitengi spends her mornings tending to her farm. She rises before dawn, leaves her home in Lukanda, Zambia, and passes the early hours planting, weeding, and cultivating her crops. For years, 34-year-old Memory’s harvest—maize, rice, and garden vegetables—has supported her family of 12. But this year’s drought, recently declared a national disaster, has threatened the livelihoods of Memory and one million other families across Zambia. It has destroyed crops and devastated the agricultural industry.
Luckily, Memory can weather the storm—with the help of a little something called a cowpea.
Read more.
February 2024
“We Left Everything Behind.” Addressing Displacement and Rebuilding Livelihoods in Ukraine
Mariupol, Ukraine, used to be a dynamic, lively city, with a population of over 400,000 people. When the war broke out, everything changed. The city was besieged by Russian forces for almost three months, and 25,000 people were killed. Around 90% of its residential buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Read more.
February 2024
“All This Fear. All This Pain.” Responding to Ukraine’s Mental Health Crisis
A quarter of Ukraine’s population—about 10 million people—have been exposed to risks and experiences that could negatively impact their mental health. People who live and work on the frontlines of the conflict, including humanitarian workers, health workers, and community members are particularly at risk.
Read more.
February 2024
Ukraine: Two Years of Conflict and Displacement
It’s been two years since war broke out in Ukraine, and millions are still affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Families across the country are facing unprecedented poverty, rising food prices, and widespread disease—not to mention daily barrages of missiles and drone attacks. The violent conflict has cut them off from food, water, healthcare, and critical resources. Bombs have destroyed hospitals, schools, energy plants, roads, and homes.
Read more.
December 2023
From Group to Group: One Woman’s Mission to Stop Gender-Based Violence in Zambia
Doroth Makina is a woman of many talents—she’s a hardworking farmer, a devoted mother and grandmother, and a fierce advocate against gender-based violence. In 2019, she and the women of her community came together to form a saving’s group—but it has since become so much more than that. Makina knew that she could leverage the group to educate dozens more women on gender equality. In the small town of Senanga in Zambia’s Western Province, Makina is a witness to, and activist against, the gender inequity that plagues her community.
Read more.
November 2023
‘Which Future Do We Have?’: Stories from Refugees in Armenia
Nearly 22,500 refugees in Armenia will experience a mental health condition following the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a recent estimate by the World Health Organization. September marked the rapid escalation of a decades-long conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan, forcing more than 100,000 refugees to flee their homes. Families were forced to make dangerous journeys and arrived in Armenia with little food, water, or shelter.
Read more.
November 2023
Power of the People: How Community-Based Nutrition Screenings Are Saving Lives in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has faced an onslaught of humanitarian emergencies in recent years. Its population has only just begun to recover from a two-year civil war which devastated entire cities and left millions displaced. Conflict primarily centered in Tigray, where families were cut off from food, shelter, and external assistance. Many were left with little else than hope to hold onto. Today, the country faces some of the highest hunger rates in the world, with about 18% of the population—or 20.1 million people—at crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.
Read more.
November 2023
El Nino Drives Hunger Around the World
As climate change prompts scientists to warn of declining crop yields, farmers worldwide are recognizing the importance of natural pollinators. Birds, bees, ladybugs, bats, and other critters are not only key to ensuring food security, they are critical to humanity’s survival. Without pollinators, entire ecosystems would collapse.
Read more here, and read the AP NEWs feature here.
October 2023
Actress Kristin Davis Honored by Action Against Hunger As Humanitarian Needs Rise
Action Against Hunger, the leader in the global movement to end hunger, inspired a packed ballroom to raise more than $1 million at our 21st Gala on Thursday, October 19, 2023. We welcomed both new and long-time supporters, celebrities, and humanitarians to honor our work in reaching more than 28 million people last year alone, especially through programs designed to empower communities and inspire change. With rising humanitarian needs around the world, hundreds of guests united to support our mission.
Read more.
August 2023
Not A Garden Pest: How Protecting Pollinators Means Safeguarding Our Global Food System
As climate change prompts scientists to warn of declining crop yields, farmers worldwide are recognizing the importance of natural pollinators. Birds, bees, ladybugs, bats, and other critters are not only key to ensuring food security, they are critical to humanity’s survival. Without pollinators, entire ecosystems would collapse.
Read more.
July 2023
How One Solar-Powered Innovation Changed an Entire Community
The Smart Tap System: A Vending Machine for Water
Facing the region’s worst drought in 70 years, more than 16 million people across the Horn of Africa cannot access enough water. Habiba Kanchora Wario was one of them.
Last April, Habiba’s life changed when a solar-powered Smart Tap system was installed near her home in Yaqbarsadi, Isiolo County, Kenya.
Read more, and see the story featured in sun-connect news.
July 2023
Putting Down Roots in Uganda
More than 1.5 million refugees currently live in Uganda, a country that welcomes displaced people by giving them a small plot of land, the right to work, and access to local schools and healthcare. While Uganda’s refugee policies are among the world’s most progressive, many refugees still spend over a decade in the country and face an uphill battle to find stable livelihoods.
Read the six part series here.
June 2023
While Hunger Threatens Millions of Lives in Horn of Africa, Funding Falls Short
32 million people across the Horn of Africa are in desperate need of support. They’re suffering from intense drought—the region’s worst in 40 years—followed by a period of flash flooding that destroyed what little crops were left.
Families in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya have been forced to tirelessly walk across borders, exhausted and malnourished, seeking a chance at life. They’ve lost their livelihoods, their homes, and in many instances, their lives. Last year, the conditions resulted in the deaths of 43,000 Somalis—half of them children under five.
Read more.
May 2023
Supporting Sudanese Refugees: Our Response to the Conflict and Displacement Crisis
It’s been less than a month since conflict erupted in Sudan, and more than 150,000 people have been forced to flee the country. Families from across the country are desperately trying to avoid violence and find safety, and all are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, including food, water, health services, and shelter.
Read more.
Kenneal Patterson 