From hunger to hope: Esther's story
This is what love in action looks like on the ground – in the life of one remarkable young woman.
In Karamoja, Uganda, extreme hunger often forces families apart. Esther, 20, cares for her five younger siblings while her parents work on a distant farm. They send back what they can, but despite all their hard work, it was rarely enough. For years, the family survived on just one meal a day.
While Esther was able to do a little cultivation at home in their garden, when it wasn’t the rainy season, they wouldn’t have enough. And when the rainy season would fail, their crops would push them to the brink. They would have nothing to eat and nothing to sell at the market.
During the toughest seasons, Esther would have to forage in the wild for a grass called ‘Ekauda’ and wild fruit, or climb thorny trees to gather bitter Balanite leaves to keep her and her siblings from starving.
‘Will this be the only way to survive forever?’ Esther says. ‘If you don’t find food, it means you go to sleep hungry.’
But with the help of Tearfund supporters, love didn’t stay at a distance. Esther was able to join a local training group through her church run by our partners. She was able to access training in sustainable agriculture that helped her cultivate a kitchen garden of her own. The family can now grow vegetables, tomatoes and onions. And with the income from selling surplus vegetables, they’ve even been able to buy more land and build a new home.
Esther is able to use what they earn to buy beans and cooking oil too.
‘It’s not like the old days,’ Esther shares. ‘Hunger won’t touch us again… you will realise that vegetables are no longer scarce. [They] are available throughout the whole year.’
Esther is using what she’s learned not just to thrive now, but to break the cycle of hunger for her siblings and for future generations to come.
