My daughter is five weeks old today. Her dark eyes and hair stand out in sharp contrast to her older sister’s fair coloring and ocean blue eyes. To say the least, we are all quite in love.
And she is going to be my introverted thinker, I believe. She quietly takes the world in, bit by bit. She rarely gets upset about anything (unlike her older sister who screamed most of her first six weeks of life). But little T does have her limits. When she is hungry, there is no polite “may I have a nibble?” She goes from zero to unglued in 2.5 seconds. And since she is breastfed, there are times that she simply has to wait, even though it seems like the end of the world to her.
We were driving home from the grocery store yesterday when she got hungry. She proceeded to let us all know about it. Loudly. Even though we were literally only three minutes from home, it was heartbreaking for this momma to watch her little one express hunger and know that there was nothing I could do to ease her frustration and pain until the car was safely parked.
Of course, we arrived home in one piece, and she was promptly fed. All was well.
But the experience led me to think about all the babies in the world, breastfed and otherwise, whose mommas can’t guarantee that they’ll be fed when they are hungry.
In France during World War II, many women found themselves pregnant after being raped or seduced by German soldiers. Once the Germans were kicked out, these women were publicly shamed and outcast. There are stories of women whose babies died because no one would offer these “traitors” even a glass of water. Without adequate water, their breast milk dried up and the babies starved.
It’s heartbreaking to think that the lack of something as simple as fresh water, something you and I can so easily acquire, could mean starvation for a child too young to understand the injustice of it all.
But it’s still happening. Only 27% of people in Northern Afghanistan have access to fresh drinking water. That means almost three quarters of babies born there are either malnourished from the breastmilk of a mother who cannot get enough water or poisoned from the breastmilk of a mother drinking bacteria-laden water. (see the World Health Organization stats here)
The tragedy is overwhelming. And completely preventable.
Afghanistan American Friendship Foundation works to provide Afghan communities with clean water. And they are doing a great job. In 2012, AAFF dug 25 wells to provide a safe water source for over 12,500 people.
What does it take to provide wells for that many people? It takes caring. One ten dollar donation helps AAFF provide an entire family enough clean drinking water for life. Life. Ten dollars is roughly two packages of bottled water here in the US. Or two cups of coffee at Starbucks.
What would happen if we all gave up just a little to make sure that everyone had enough?
It will save lives. And to quote from Beasts of the Southern Wild, we absolutely must “take care of the things that are smaller and sweeter than [us].”
Click here to donate to change a life.
Click here to like their Facebook page and spread the word.

kids need water to grow