Corkman to walk barefoot to highlight world hunger
Paddy McMahon, Meelin, Co Cork, will undertake a 13km walk barefoot in the Meelin area on March 8 to highlight the growing global hunger crisis —photographed on the walk route. Picture: Denis Minihane
A burgeoning global hunger crisis emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic could rival the harrowing circumstances of Ireland's Great Famine, an Irish nurse and humanitarian has warned.
Paddy McMahon, from Meelin in North Cork, will complete a 13km walk while barefoot on March 8, International Women’s Day, to raise awareness of the escalating global crisis, as well as funds for his Mothers First charity, which tackles malnutrition in poverty-stricken communities in India.
He said he would also don a suit while walking barefoot to emphasise the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women and children in developing countries compared with richer countries.
“The symbolism of the suit while walking barefoot is to highlight the inequality of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on different parts of the world," said Mr McMahon.
Originally, the Barefoot Paddy Walk was to take place between Tracton and Kinsale, Co Cork, recounting the 14km walked by 124 starving citizens to Kinsale workhouse in 1850, an event remembered by historians as hugely significant in Ireland’s history.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the walk has been changed to his native village of Meelin, which also suffered during the Famine.
He founded the Mothers First organisation in 2004 after finding a child dying of malnutrition in the northern city of Varanasi in India.
It has since helped thousands of malnourished pregnant mothers and children by delivering life-saving food and medicine.
Mothers First has merged its fieldwork experience to become a global advocate for malnourished women during pregnancy.
The charity was instrumental in negotiating the inclusion of anaemia in women as an indicator in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in Ethiopia in 2019, recognised as a significant achievement by those working in the area.
Unicef has estimated that an additional 10,000 children every month are dying of malnutrition.
UN special food envoy Michael Fakhri warned the Human Rights Council in December 2020 that member states and international organisations have not yet come together with an internationally co-ordinated plan to tackle the looming hunger crisis.
Mothers First is currently delivering food-based interventions to almost 200 malnourished and pregnant mothers in Varanasi.
The Barefoot Walk With Paddy event hopes to raise much-needed funds to support and add more mothers to the programme in India.
Mr McMahon said it was all about empowerment and education so that mothers could in turn lead within their communities.
"Mothers First is an organisation for women and girls. By breaking the cycle of malnutrition in communities, it begins to address the poverty, injustice, and inequality that is holding them back as women.”
The Barefoot Paddy event will be live-streamed on Facebook from 9.30am on March 8. Full details of the event are at www.MothersFirst.net.
Tune in to the event on Facebook on March 8: Participate in the virtual 6km walk (7,800 steps), Covid-19 5km restrictions applying.
Donate to the charity Mothers First to maintain and expand the reach of the programmes: https://www.idonate.ie/6022_mothers-first.html
Sign the petition to ask for a greater co-ordinated international response from the Government given the position of influence it holds with its seat on the UN Security Council: https://www.openpetition.eu/ie/petition/online/covid-19-and-the-growing-hunger-crisis-that-has-no-coordinated-international-response
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