Crickhowell resident and former King Henry VIII School pupil Beth Harrison admits she is ‘very hangry’…

Beth is putting her money where her University of Leeds PhD research mouth is. She and her Zimbabwean research colleagues are making sure that children in two remote villages in Binga District of Zimbabwe can get the education they and their families crave.

But this year the highly-prized education has taken second place to hunger as Zimbabwe suffers its worst drought for ten years.

To help raise awareness and the funds to get a meal a day to the children she has launched a social media fundraising campaign called ‘I am HANGRY’.

The urban dictionary definition of Hangry is ‘feeling cross and frustrated when hungry. A hunger tantrum’.

Now scientists are using the phrase and scientists from the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health have described hangry as a survival technique.

Sadly the students in Binga and Zimbabwe are past the hangry stage. They are too weak to fulfil their dream to go to school.

Beth has described how, during her research in rural Zimbabwe, she was meeting desperately poor families and it was so clear that education, an education that had to be paid for, was a high priority for every family.

“They all realise it is the way out of poverty, but the weather odds are so stacked against them that for over half the year the children walk miles to school, and back, hungry,” she said.

“This year the situation is dire and increasingly they are too weak to even go to school. The food crisis in southern Africa is recognised by the UN and many organisations are calling for financial support.

“It will take some time for the huge wheels to turn talk into action, and the families we support are in very remote villages and often the last to get help.

“I know these families, I know the children. It breaks my heart to know that they are starving because yet again the rains haven’t come.”

The Lwazi Programme’s ‘I am HANGRY’ campaign asks people on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to post a picture of their hangry face to let the world know that hunger, especially for children, is unacceptable and to make a donation via PayIt2.

If you aren’t on social media you can still donate, and if you can’t donate you can still support the campaign by posting a picture of your Hangry face on social media or by a picture in your window, car, local shop etc.

Beth says the campaign needs to raise at least $10,000 to get these children through to the next harvest.

Beth’s PhD research revealed the problems in getting the maximum value of support to the people and places who need it most.

Basic local needs are often not fully understood or there are governance gaps throughout the system - both of which result in an ‘evaporation’ of funds.

The charitable trust, The Lwazi Programme, set up by Beth and her research assistants, is a small organisation which provides school fees and is run by volunteers so every possible penny contributed ends up where it is needed.

To find out more and how you can help go to thelwaziprogramme.org/i-am-hangry or look them up on Facebook.