It’s time for us to ‘seed’ the world
Unicef UK president Kirsty Young explains how it is empowering women to start their own businesses
‘It’s a constant theme on Desert Island Discs: how much we all owe to a helping hand’
Iam in a shop staring at the ordered and immaculate shelves; there’s an old fashioned, glass sweetie jar half-full of tiny, jewel-coloured treats. Sitting on the well-scrubbed counter are weighing scales, and in the corner a dozen unwrapped cakes of soap, next to cans of cooking oil and a few hefty bags of flour – the everyday essentials of life.
Standing here, thousands of miles from my home in Oxfordshire, I am thinking of the shop my dad used to own – spick and span and wellordered, just like this one. As a fiveyear-old, now and then I’d be allowed to stand customer-side to spend my 5p pocket money, inevitably on that king of kiddie confectionery – the Curly Wurly.
That was Glasgow Cross in the early Seventies; this is the small town of Agulae in Ethiopia in 2016.
This shop belongs to Almaz, a married mother of four who looks to be in her mid-thirties. She’s welcoming but doesn’t smile easily, her face betraying a life spent worrying and working. I marvel inwardly at the order that this woman has conjured amid the dusty, fly-blown town that sits outside.
Something stirs near my feet. From a bundle of muslin draped over a cushion on the floor, a perfect little toddler’s fist and forearm emerges, stretching; Almaz’s youngest daughter Eyerus, aged three, has woken from her afternoon nap. She’s on the brink of bewildered tears when her mother bends down, deftly scooping her on to her hip.
Almaz tells me emphatically that yes, the 15-hour days are punishing and it’s been a long haul getting this far, but it has been worth it – because soon with the money she has made from the shop, she’ll be able to move her family into a new, two-room house, from the single-room property she currently rents.
A modest-sounding achievement by Western standards but in the harsh day-to-day reality of life in Ethiopia, a significant small triumph.
In my 10 years of talking to castaways on Desert Island Discs, a constant theme is how much their huge achievements have been underpinned, at some early stage, by a helping hand from others. Jo Malone described how her fragrance and beauty business was built from hard work, but also acknowledged the loyalty and support of a handful of well-heeled and well-connected Knightsbridge ladies, who spread the word at their swanky soirées. Mark Rylance went to drama school with the help of a grant, and was given his first professional roles at the publicly subsidised Citizens Theatre.
Most of us, of course, don’t want to win a Nobel Prize or an Oscar, but wherever we peg our ambitions the simple truth remains that hard work, determination, resilience and singlemindedness are nothing without opportunity.
If you are born into a country of 90 million people beset by drought and poverty, finding the opportunity to do the best for yourself and your children can seem nigh on impossible. In Ethiopia that’s where something called the Community Care Coalition comes in. Tiny amounts of “seed” money are distributed through carefully monitored local committees to enable women such as Almaz to start their own, very small business. It’s donations to Unicef that make the programme possible.
I took on the role of president of Unicef UK in January, and my trip to the Horn of Africa with my Unicef colleagues was my first experience of seeing the “ground level” work we’re responsible for. It’s in my nature to ask questions, and there are very important ones that need to be answered when it comes to how donations to charities are spent, and the long-term effectiveness of aid, be that in the form of UK government support or the charitable giving of the British public. So let me give you some interesting facts.
In 1990, approximately one in five Ethiopian children would not have lived to see their fifth birthday. Today, as a result of improvements in the country’s health, nutrition and water, supported by long-term Unicef projects, that number has been cut by more than a half. Sadly, Ethiopia is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades, and millions of children stand to lose out on their health, education, wellbeing and future.
What’s happening with Unicef in Ethiopia is only a tiny snapshot of the work we do worldwide. The conflict in Syria has now raged for five years, and in 2015, we treated more than 13,000 children there for acute malnutrition.
In May last year, two major earthquakes in Nepal left nearly 9,000 people dead and more than 22,000 injured. Unicef was there immediately – giving essential help.
In the past 12 months alone, Unicef projects have vaccinated over 530,000 children against measles and rubella.
On Sunday we hold our charity celebrity football match, Soccer Aid. Just a £5 donation could provide lifesaving food for a child for a week, and, what’s more, the Government will double your donation.
We need your help to reach every child in danger. As a mother, there isn’t a cause on earth I would rather speak up for.