A Hungry Child Can't Wait: Ask 5 for 5

Guest Blogger: Sarah Lenssen from #Ask5for5

Family photos by Mike Fiechtner Photography

Thank you Adopted in Christ and nearly 150 other bloggers from around the world for allowing me to share a story with you today, during Social Media Week.

A hungry child in East Africa can't wait. Her hunger consumes her while we decide if we'll respond and save her life. In Somalia, children are stumbling along for days, even weeks, on dangerous roads and with empty stomachs in search of food and water. Their crops failed for the third year in a row. All their animals died. They lost everything. Thousands are dying along the road before they find help in refugee camps.

At my house, when my three children are hungry, they wait minutes for food, maybe an hour if dinner is approaching. Children affected by the food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia aren't so lucky. Did you know that the worst drought in 60 years is ravaging whole countries right now, as you read this? Famine, a term not used lightly, has been declared in Somalia. This is the world's first famine in 20 years.12.4 million people are in need of emergency assistance and over 29,000 children have died in the last three months alone. A child is dying every 5 minutes. It it estimated that 750,000 people could die before this famine is over. Take a moment and let that settle in.

The media plays a major role in disasters. They have the power to draw the attention of society to respond--or not. Unfortunately, this horrific disaster has become merely a footnote in most national media outlets. News of the U.S. national debt squabble and the latest celebrity's baby bump dominate headlines. That is why I am thrilled that nearly 150 bloggers from all over the world are joining together today to use the power of social media to make their own headlines; to share the urgent need of the almost forgotten with their blog readers. Humans have the capacity to care deeply for those who are suffering, but in a situation like this when the numbers are too huge to grasp and the people so far away, we often feel like the little we can do will be a drop in the ocean, and don't do anything at all.

When news of the famine first hit the news in late July, I selfishly avoided it. I didn't want to read about it or hear about it because I knew I would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. I wanted to protect myself. I knew I would need to do something if I knew what was really happening. You see, this food crisis is personal. I have a 4-year-old son and a 1 yr-old daughter who were adopted from Ethiopia and born in regions now affected by the drought. If my children still lived in their home villages, they would be two of the 12.4 million. My children: extremely hungry and malnourished? Gulp. I think any one of us would do anything we could for our hungry child. But would you do something for another mother's hungry child?

My friend and World Vision staffer, Jon Warren, was recently in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya--the largest refugee camp in the world with over 400,000 people. He told me the story of Isnino Siyat, 22, a mother who walked for 10 days and nights with her husband, 1 yr-old-baby, Suleiman, and 4 yr.-old son Adan Hussein, fleeing the drought in Somalia. When she arrived at Dadaab, she built the family a shelter with borrowed materials while carrying her baby on her back. Even her dress is borrowed. As she sat in the shelter on her second night in camp she told Jon, "I left because of hunger. It is a very horrible drought which finished both our livestock and our farm." The family lost their 5 cows and 10 goats one by one over 3 months, as grazing lands dried up. "We don't have enough food now...our food is finished. I am really worried about the future of my children and myself if the situation continues."

Will you help a child like Baby Suleiman? Ask5for5 is a dream built upon the belief that you will.

That something I knew I would need to do became a campaign called #Ask5for5 to raise awareness and funds for famine and drought victims. The concept is simple, give $5 and ask five of your friends to give $5, and then they each ask five of their friends to give $5 and so on--in nine generations of 5x5x5...we could raise $2.4 Million! In one month, over 750 people have donated over $25,000! I set up a fundraiser at See Your Impact and 100% of the funds will go to World Vision, an organization that has been fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa for decades and will continue long after this famine has ended. Donations can multiply up to 5 times in impact by government grants to
help provide emergency food, clean water, agricultural support,
healthcare, and other vital assistance to children and families suffering in the Horn.

I need you to help me save lives. It's so so simple; here's what you need to do:

1. Donate $5 or more on this page (http://seeyourimpact.org/members/ask5for5)


2. Send an email to your friends and ask them to join us.


3. Share #Ask5for5 on Facebook and Twitter!

I'm looking for another 100 bloggers to share this post on their blogs throughout Social Media Week. Email me at ask5for5@gmail.com if you're interested in participating this week.

A hungry child doesn't wait. She doesn't wait for us to finish the other things on our to-do list, or get to it next month when we might have a little more money to give. She doesn't wait for us to decide if she's important enough to deserve a response. She will only wait as long as her weakened little body will hold on...please respond now and help save her life. Ask 5 for 5.

Thank you on behalf of all of those who will be helped--you are saving lives and changing history.

p.s. Please don't move on to the next website before you donate and email your friends right now. It only takes 5 minutes and just $5, and if you're life is busy like mine, you probably won't get back to it later. Let's not be a generation that ignores hundreds of thousands of starving people, instead let's leave a legacy of compassion. You have the opportunity to save a life today!

The Elephant

The elephant in the room… you know that thing everyone knows about but doesn’t talk about. In our case that elephant is the absence of our baby. Maybe others don’t feel that way when they are around us… but I always do. Every time I hear the question coming, I think, “Just let’s ignore the elephant in the room, please.” But they don’t, they reveal it as soon as they ask, “how’s the adoption going,” or “you guys are adopting right?” And it is not that I don’t appreciate people wanting to know how we are doing, because really I am thankful for them. It is just that every time that question comes up and the elephant in the roomis revealed, it turns around and steps right on my heart. It crushes my lungs and I struggle to find the words I need. As my heart breaks, I wonder how many more times I can say, “well it’s ok… we are just waiting.” I wonder when I will reach my breaking point? When will that elephant get the best of me? I am pretty sure that day is not far away. I barely make it through the simplest of conversations about our adoption these days. And as thankful as I am for all the love and support we received through the sales of our adoption t-shirts, every time I see a friend or family wearing theirs, the elephant gets bigger. The pain grows deeper as if that 5 tons beast is moving its foot further and further into my heart. I know deep down it is not the question that is the problem; it is not the t-shirt that gets me. It is what those things remind me of… it is the fact that I don’t have my baby. And every time I see a child this rush of mixed emotions goes through my heart. I simultaneously want to run to them and run away from them. I want to run to them because I know they will affirm to me why I so long for my baby and how much I love to be around children. And I want to run away fromthem for fear that they will make that elephant in the room even bigger and more unbearable. Fear that their presence will only reinforce the absence of my baby.

A piece by Banksy obviously addressing "the elephant in the room."

A couple of weekends ago I realized how much this “elephant” was affecting me. I spent most of the weekend playing with the many kids at our church retreat. I ran around with them and did crafts and in general had a great time. They were a wonderful distraction from my own desires… until they were gone. As I sat by the campfire, after most of the kids had gone to bed, I felt so incredibly alone. Fifty people surrounded me yet it felt like it was just me and the elephant. It was then that I realized how close I was to my breaking point. It took no more than two lines of Winnie the Pooh (read for all the children still awake as bed time story of sorts) before I broke. My lungs collapsed and my heart shattered under the weight. There were no more children to distract me from my pain. As I walked away from the campfire tears streaming and gasping for air, I sobbed under the night sky and I realized…. no distraction in the world is big enough to make me forget about the elephant in the room.