One of the things that is being done in some schools in urban Australia is the setting up of vegetable gardens at schools. The kids are given lessons on how to grow vegetables and herbs, they take the produce home with them when it’s grown, and it’s available for the locals around the school as well. I’ve seen the idea of edible garden parks, rather than just flowers. Anywhere can grow food, if the government doesn’t get in the way with council regulations, and what’s considered ‘proper’.

The other problem is of course, that invariably it’s the wealthy telling the poor what to do, rather than listening and finding out what they need to fix it, and then providing them with the resources to fix it themselves.

Interestingly, people who donate things for foreign aid are often doing the same thing. There are hospitals in some countries in Africa where electrical equipment sits taking up space in the back rooms, because they don’t have the power supply to use it.

It becomes a question of ‘why are you helping?’