Joseta only
has a meal once a day, usually porridge made with rice and water. If they are
available she will add papaya leaves, taro or cassava.
It was especially difficult when she was pregnant with her youngest child,
Graciano.
“I felt
hungry all the time,” Joseta says. “I was eating sosoro (rice porridge), corn,
cassava leaves, papaya leaves and a bit of fruit. I rarely ate any meat.”
Today, Graciano is 21 months old but not much has changed for the mother of
four, who lives in a remote village in Timor-Leste, where many families are
struggling to access enough food to feed their families.
After her husband died, Joseta moved into a home with her children and her mother, and three other families. Together, five adults and eight children share four tiny rooms in a makeshift shack made of wood and corrugated iron sheets.
Joseta stays at home to care for her children and her only income comes from her mother Elisa, who is also a widow and makes a living by growing and selling cassava, papaya, taro and corn.
Poverty and a lack of nutritious food has been detrimental to the health of the family, particularly to Joseta’s youngest child Graciano.
While
Joseta did not have much to eat while she was pregnant, Graciano was born at a
healthy weight of about 3kg. She breastfed her baby boy for two months before
moving him on to plain rice porridge.
“I had a
lot of milk, but I stopped breastfeeding Graciano because he kept crying,”
Joseta says.
ChildFund
and the International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced a new sport for
development partnership.
As
part of its ongoing commitment to using cricket as a vehicle to raise awareness
of important issues, and to contribute to development and social outcomes in
communities, the ICC has begun working with ChildFund Australia on a pilot
program in Papua New Guinea.
The pilot program – Cricket for Good with ChildFund – will be delivered in schools and villages in Port Moresby, and involves:
- the creation of an integrated cricket and life
skills curriculum;
- intensive, in-country training program for
facilitators in program delivery, with half of all facilitators being female;
- collection of baseline and endline data of
participants and facilitators to measure and define pilot impact, and produce
learnings for ChildFund and the ICC.
Jane Livesey, Development Manager – East Asia-Pacific, at Cricket Australia says: “Cricket for Good is the ICC’s global community outreach program and is focused on leveraging the vast power and reach of cricket to positively impact the lives of children and families around the world.
“This includes forging strong partnerships with internationally recognised community organisations, such as ChildFund, to create positive social change through the game of cricket.”
ChildFund Australia has significant experience in the implementation of sport for development programs. ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence says: “We are very excited to be working with the ICC to bring this integrated cricket and life skills curriculum to children and young people in Papua New Guinea.
“Well-designed sport for development programs are a proven way to achieve positive social outcomes, such as building resilience, youth leadership and gender equity.”
