Benjamin Evans

Summary

Benjamin Evans leads the Feed The Hungry Team in Australia. Visiting over 15 countries and their feeding programs, Ben has met thousands of children desperate for their next meal. With 2024 being Ben’s 20th year with Feed The Hungry, his heart is to be a voice for the voiceless, with a strong conviction that Christians are called to respond to those living in poverty. (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Hear from Ben

“So they want to learn, but it’s so difficult to learn when you’ve been on an empty stomach. So we provide meals to these children in a school environment so they can learn and be fed at the same time. And then as a Christian organisation, we also want to share the gospel with them so that we can feed them body, soul, and spirit.”

~ Ben

Ben’s story

I am thrilled to announce a partnership with every Christian community radio station across Australia, coming together to help feed hungry refugee children like Angok – on Take Away Hunger Day, the 22nd Aug 2024.

I met Angok in a refugee settlement called Kiryandongo, located in the middle of Uganda, Africa. Uganda hosts over 1,688,000 refugees from surrounding countries, but mostly South Sudan – where Angok was born.

Angok is a bright young 13yr old boy, of small stature but with big dreams of being a “Nollywood” action movie star (a blended word for the Nigerian version of Hollywood). I dutifully sat there as Angok took his once-in-a lifetime opportunity to pitch to me his movie idea. It is a sad story, but true, and far too common…

Ben Evans and Angok Ma Bior

Angok’s father was shot and killed during the war in South Sudan. Fleeing for their lives, Angok, his siblings & pregnant mother – headed to Uganda. Sadly, his mother lost her baby during the frantic escape.

Eventually arriving safely in Uganda, but drowning in loss, grief and sorrow, Angok’s mother soon became overwhelmed at the desperate situation. Often lamenting to Angok…

“I must also die… I cannot manage to live with these children when I am poor…
I am a poor widower… I will not manage…”

Tragically, less than a month later, Angok’s mother fell sick and died despite receiving medical assistance.
Now Angok was orphaned, and relying on his older sister – still in primary school – to look after him. This
child-headed home felt abandoned and isolated in a foreign country. Angok’s sister dropped out of primary
school (grade 6) and sought offers of marriage, feeling there was no other option to provide for her family.

She did marry, and her husband did welcome Angok and siblings into his home. But the husband was a poor man too – and their lives did not get much better. I asked Angok what would have happened if we stopped the feeding program – He tilted his head, looked me in the eye, and said without hesitation, “I could have died!”

Angok’s struggles continued but his sister taught him hope. She encouraged Angok to understand and accept his situation, to face each morning with the hope that today it might change…

“Wake up and go to school Angok… Don’t be tired… Pray every day… Respect your elders…
Hurry up that hope that somebody may be helping you today…
God may decide to you give you what you want Angok.”

All over the world I know children pray the Lord’s prayer, just like Angok.

“Our Father who art in heaven… Give us today our daily bread…”

Children who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Children who may have to go to sleep hungry, maybe just drinking a little water from a puddle near their home. Children who pray with desperation because they have no one else to help them, only their heavenly Father.

School becomes a literal lifeline for refugees like Angok. Education is an important tool to escape the poverty cycle, but who can concentrate on an empty stomach? And so we partner with schools to provide hot and nutritious meals to students every day. Children eat generous servings of fortified rice meals, especially designed by food nutritionists to give growing bodies all the vitamins and minerals they need to grow up big and strong. These meals create the capacity to learn & understand & do well at school.

Most importantly we work with Christians who share the gospel message.

“Our teacher gave us small story… that if you lose you own parent… what you should put first is God! Why? Because He is the source of life… call Him each… and every day… tell Him your conditions…”

Angok’s simple faith is that God hears his conditions and that God will send someone to change them. I am asking you to help answer his prayers, and those of hundreds and thousands of children in Kiryandongo and elsewhere. It doesn’t take much to make a difference with your support on Take Away Hunger Day 2024.

Your simple donation of $6 will feed a hungry & vulnerable child like Angok for a month!

But more than a meal, you will unlock his future. You will provide good food, so he can earn a good education, grab that good job, and build a good future. Angok can dream again, if he can’t be a movie star, he wants to be a Minister of Parliament, “an important person”, so he can help his sister, family and his community.

Your donation today will provide hot & nutritious meals, in a school environment, giving us the opportunity to share the gospel. To remind Angok that Jesus loves him, died for his sins so he can have eternal life. That Jesus takes Angok’s welfare, here on earth, very personally…

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” ~ Matthew 25:35-40

Please prayerfully consider supporting Angok and many children like him, and then give as generously as you can.

Your donation today will feed the hungry: body, soul & spirit.

Voice for the Hungry,