Longford-based dairy farmer Mike Magan (left)
Photo: Irish Farmers Journal Longford-based dairy farmer Mike Magan [pictured] has made an appeal to his fellow farmers to get a “plane load of whole milk powder” for those suffering in Yemen.
While watching an RTÉ feature on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen, Mr Magan was struck by the image of a father feeding his starving child with nothing more than sugar and water.
“I couldn’t get it out of my head,” he said. “I didn’t sleep well that night.”
The following morning he saw milky water running down the drain as he went about his work and this sight generated the current project.
A newsletter Mr Magan wrote about the fundraising effort summed up the goal of the project.
“The hope is that this becomes a farmer driven, ‘bottom up’ effort, to collect enough to get a plane load of whole milk powder to help with the starvation there.
“If we can collect €10 per farm, or the ‘milk of one cow for one day’ from all of us, that equates to 80 tons of powder. This would feed a lot of very hungry children.”
Speaking about what motivated him to such an effort, he told of how he was “brought up to have compassion”.
“We have a responsibility to look out for others. How can we forget about them?”
A recent UNICEF report said that an additional 30,000 children could develop life-threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next six months, with the number of malnourished children rising to 2.4 million overall.