Abito is seven years old. He lives in East Timor with his two sisters, his mother and his grandfather. Abito’s favourite toy is the slingshot that he made, and his favourite food is corn.
“We just planted the corn but the rain hasn’t come,” he says. The corn takes a few months to grow, and in the meantime there’s nothing to eat except akar.
Akar is made from the ground-up trunk of a sago palm tree. Abito and his family grind it, mix it with water to make a paste, and then cook it over the fire. It doesn’t taste too bad, but it’s all they have, and it doesn’t have enough nutrients to make up a nourishing diet.
Abito eats akar twice a day. When he only has akar to eat he says, “In the morning, when I go to school I feel hungry and sleepy and other kids do too”.
Abito says when they have money they can buy rice, but this is only for about one month a year.
Kids surviving on just ground-up sago trees. R U 4 real?
Do the 40 Hour Famine.