Critical Summary Portfolio

 Somalia has been in one of the worst famines and food insecurities in history, and many people have been suffering because of it. Al Jazeera documented the conditions that parents and children are in. We first see a child barely able to move from the lack of nourishment, since his father couldn’t grow food recently. Even livestock such as goats or cows which can not only provide meat, but also milk, died during the drought. Causing food items to go missing in the market.  We see pack hospitals filled with beds, and an extreme lack of space. The beds are nearly back to back in each room, with each one having multiple families in it. It’s clear to me that they are just barely getting by healthcare wise, and that they need a huge budget increase to do any sort of good. Even if you wanted to go there however, you would have to walk there, since these villages had little to no transport. Due to the lack of nutrients from food and no transport available, the journey killed many people. They interviewed a mother who lost several kids on the way to the camps, saying “If only we had transport, they could’ve survived” Overall it’s an extremely sad video that hits you hard. Seeing my people struggling knowing that I alone can’t do anything about it is heart wrenching.

Originally made on September 12, 2022, Relief Web tracked the acute food insecurity and malnourishment in Somalia from June to September and projected the Months of October to December. Of the 17.7 million people living in Somalia, 4.2 million of them were phase 3 (also known as the crisis stage) or higher. Of that 4.2 million citizens, 1.1 million individuals were on phase 4 (known as the emergency stage) and one hundred thousand people were on phase (known as the catastrophic/famine stage.) They projected that these numbers would only increase, and eventually get to the point that phase 4 and 5 will double in size. To put that into perspective, you could fill the country of Georgia with all the starving people of Somalia and still have hundreds of thousands left over. This level of starvation was mostly caused by a butterfly effect starting with the lack of rainfall. Somalia experienced four seasons straight with little rain of the sort, which caused many crops not to grow. Of the ones that were successful, they were priced high and only available for the few lucky individuals who could afford it. As for the rest, they were forced to either starve or get food from questionable sources that could potentially get them sick and cause a disease outbreak. Which from the video of the many families in the hospital, shows that they took the ladder option because they genuinely wanted to live even if it meant getting insanely sick. Connecting both the article and the video together really helps the viewer paint the picture of how large scale the famine truly is.

Unicef is one of the leaders in trying to fix Somalia’s famine matter. They managed to link the malnutrition to not only the lack of food, it's the lack of variety as well. They also related the lack of nutrition with the mothers who raise these kids, saying that they too lack in categories such as vitamin A that could have led them to harmful side effects such as memory loss. Which makes sense, because you aren’t able to take care of a child effectively if you aren’t able to take care of yourself. This causes both the mother and child to be severely underweight and have muscle wasting. They then gave solutions to these issues, starting with the start. If the pregnant mother is suffering from malnutrition, the kid will be born with a plethora of health issues, so it's of utmost importance that the mother stays healthy so the kid will start healthy. They gave some ideas, some were giving them access to health care, providing clean water and food, and teaching the mothers proper childcare. This is amplified with the video that is paired with the article. There you could see a difference in tone than the first video that was shown. They show healthy kids being treated properly and parents being educated on motherhood. Instead of seeing borderline hopelessness, they allow me to see some hope in what Unicef is doing for the country. Which makes me optimistic about what is ahead for my home country.

Reflection:

I think one of the hardest parts of the project was finding the sources and genres to use. I found that only using three sources alone isn’t enough to convey what poverty and malnourishment in Somalia meant to me. Which is why I asked Lyndsey if it was okay if I used multiple sources to convey my meaning on one big source. The genres were just as hard to pinpoint. Finding valid videos that genuinely showed not only emotion for the first one, but growth and hope for the third video was especially difficult. I think the most important job in this standpoint is to do what Lyndsey said and look at multiple sources. Even if you don’t use all of them, you're still getting a better understanding on the topic rather than not seeing it at all and potentially not getting that help you need. This project really did help my understanding of who I am as a person. For one, I always knew that Somalia wasn’t in the best condition, and how it needed a lot of help. However, after seeing how truly dire the situation is I can’t help but feel bad for them. It did connect me to my identity and culture because even though I might write about things like ice cream. I was more invested in the fact that there are many people in the world who don’t even have the luxury of eating healthy food in general, and such people are my people.