Madeline Noden

The Hunger Project's Mission: To end hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centered strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption in countries throughout the world.

Q: THP empowers women and men living in rural villages in India, Africa, Bangladesh and Latin America to end their own hunger. In identifying each individual in these communities as the solution to the hunger epidemic as opposed to the problem, how does THP work with these individuals to unlock their capacity, creativity and ultimately ignite leadership, so that they may be empowered to change their situation?

A: The Hunger Project believes that everyone has the capacity and power within themselves to transform their lives – even if most people don’t think of themselves as that powerful! Our work is to unlock this creativity and leadership, and enable people to see what they’re really capable of.

We take women and men living in rural, remote villages globally through a process we’ve designed called ‘Vision, Commitment, Action’. It interrupts the idea that the future must look like an extension of the past.

Through participating in the ‘Vision, Commitment, Action’ process, people discover that they can create a vision for their future (that looks different to the past), make a commitment to themselves and others around them that they’ll do something about it, and develop an action plan to bring their vision to life.

It’s an incredible process, and really awakens people to their own leadership. To date we have delivered this workshop to 1.6 million people!

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges THP faces in changing the mindsets of the communities in need, so that the men and women may be empowered and educated through resources and skills to break the poverty cycle they are in?

A: One of the biggest challenges is dealing with people’s resignation that ‘this is the way it’s always been, so this is the way it will be forever’. Imagine that you had always lived in hunger: why should the future be any different? Shifting that mindset to one of empowerment and optimism is a huge feat, and requires people to dig deep and deal with their own cynicism.

I must point out that the same is true for us in the Western world! How resigned are we to the way things are? We often see ourselves as insignificant and unable to make a difference. That’s simply not true! People involved in The Hunger Project community understand that they can contribute to global transformation – from right here in Australia.

805 million people currently live in hunger, and that's simply unacceptable.

THP isn’t about simply giving food handouts to end hunger. From THP countries you’ve visited, what are some of the stories that have stuck with you - and more importantly, made you realise just how much of a difference THP is making through the power of education, to feed communities and change lives.

Hunger is about more than just food – it’s about a lack of food, or the right kind of food. It’s also closely linked to lack of education, clean water, sanitation and more.

So that’s right, we’re don’t use band-aid solutions like giving food handouts. Instead, through education, training and providing access to resources, we enable people to make longterm, sustainable change.

I’ve now visited 4 countries where The Hunger Project works: India, Senegal, Ghana and Uganda. On those visits, I met incredible local leaders whose stories have stuck with me.

Alicia is one of those people. Alicia lives with her extended family – 10 adults and 10 children! She struggled to support them with what little she had. Accessing microfinance loans and financial literacy classes through The Hunger Project has now transformed her life. With her loan, she bought a sewing machine and sewing supplies, and now her tailoring business has grown so much that she employs 3 apprentices. In addition to supporting her own large family, she has given her 3 apprentices the opportunity to do the same for their families too. I love that she looked beyond how she could make a difference to her family, and to how she could enable others’ to change their lives also. Alicia is just one example of the 34,000 women who were trained in microfinance and financial literacy by The Hunger Project in Africa last year.

Q: Ending world hunger is no small task. What are the biggest challenges THP faces, in working towards the international deadline of ending hunger by 2030.

A: Yes, ending hunger can seem like an overwhelming goal! However, 805 million people currently live in hunger, and that’s simply unacceptable.

We have successfully partnered with 24 communities across Africa to teach self-reliance. What self-reliance means is 415,000 people have demonstrated they are confident and capable of taking charge of their own development, and can continue and enhance the work started in partnership with The Hunger Project. So we know that our model and methodology works, and is sustainable!

Our challenge now is to mobilise sufficient resources (particularly funding) to enable us to do more of this worldchanging work, and to scale it up, so that even more people have the opportunity to shift their own mindsets about what’s possible for the future – and to end hunger and poverty for themselves and their families.

Q: On the best piece of personal advice you can share with our readers……

A: In Senegal I met a woman leader called Coumba who had been trained by The Hunger Project. We asked her what her advice was for us in Australia. She said, ‘yeewu, yeewu, yeewu’ or ‘awake, awake, awake’. So that’s my advice to you too!

Ending hunger is an immense task, and we absolutely need to overcome our own resignation about that so that we can tackle the task head on. I channel the strength of our village partners who overcome huge obstacles on a daily basis and bring that through to my work for The Hunger Project.

For example, when I speak to people about investing their resources into our work, it can be uncomfortable to try and shift their mindsets around what they are able to commit to. I’ve learned from the women and men trained by The Hunger Project about being bold and having important conversations so that together we can achieve something special: a world free from hunger and poverty, where every woman, man and child leads a healthy, fulfilling life of self-reliance and dignity.

Instagram: @THEHUNGERPROJECTAU | WWW.THP.ORG.AU