From Afghanistan to South Sudan and Nairobi, the practical and dauntless Mary Ellen McGrogarty of the World Food Programme focuses on respecting the dignity and individuality of people in desperate need
Before arriving in Sudan, McGroarty spent two years in Afghanistan, remaining in Kabul when the Taliban rolled into town to reassert their rule after a 20-year abeyance. Since signing up as a volunteer with Goal and travelling to Goma in the wake of the Rwandan crisis in 1994, McGroarty has had a ringside seat for the series of geopolitical crises and disasters that have flared across the developing world. She has worked with the WFP for 25 years.
Her late father spent his life as a monumental sculptor, crafting headstones. In the early years, her parents used to fret about the trajectory of her life. When she travelled to Goma in Zaire in 1994, the city had become a gathering point for thousands of Rwandans fleeing the genocidal madness that swept their country. By that summer, the camps were in the midst of a horrific cholera epidemic.
McGroarty started her post in Afghanistan in October 2020. By then, almost 60 per cent of the country was under Taliban control. Because the WFP had to try to get relief to people in those regions, she became accustomed to dealing with Taliban leaders, usually in Doha. But when they reclaimed Kabul, on August 15th, 2021, the rules of engagement changed.
The grand sweep of McGroarty’s job demands an organisational capacity for intimidating logistics. In Afghanistan, 19 million people were living in a state of acute food insecurity, spread across 34 provinces during her time there. A succession of severe droughts had devastated local agriculture. Of that endangered total, six million people lived one step away from starvation.
The true devastation of food poverty goes beyond immediate hunger. The helplessness and frustration of parents no longer able to provide is profound. But there is also the importance that food plays in society. The tradition of hospitality is deep rooted. McGroarty experienced it again and again in Afghanistan.
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