Mates team up with NSW Riverina farmers to help feed people in Sudan
A group of farmers from the NSW Riverina are attempting to ship their wheat to Africa. (ABC Landline)
It started with mung beans.
When Ken Dachi recognised the crop, considered a delicacy in his home country of Kenya, he knew he was in the right spot.
That spot was Rob Houghton's farm at Leeton, in the New South Wales Riverina, but as Mr Dachi might say, this is not a story of geography, but rather one about a human response.
Mr Dachi works for not-for-profit Welcoming Australia, promoting diversity and social cohesion.
Ken Dachi moved to Leeton in 2019. (ABC Landline)
Mr Houghton, a third-generation irrigator, grows cotton, wheat and, on occasion, mung bean crops.
It is hard to imagine a more unlikely pair.
"There wouldn't be too many combinations like it," Mr Houghton says of the friendship.
"But that desire to make a difference and give hope is something we have in common."
Most weeks, Mr Houghton and Mr Dachi break bread in the kitchen at the farm, the former preparing the meals, the latter responsible for washing up.
Rob Houghton is a third-generation farmer in Leeton. (ABC Landline)
Jenny Houghton will typically leave her husband and his friend to it.
"I love it, but it's full on between the two of them," she says.
"I thought Rob was extroverted, but then I met Ken."
So what do these two extroverts from opposite sides of the globe talk about over mung beans, lamb chops, steak or whatever it might be?
World issues, leadership, and history all get a run.
Sometimes it is the farm or the season, but lately there has been a singular focus.
That is on how the pair plans to ship 100 tonnes of wheat from Leeton to Sudan.
Ken Dachi and Rob Houghton called on their neighbours to donate grain. (ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
"Grain of Hope is the name of both the organisation and the campaign and the idea is to respond to the global hunger crisis," Mr Dachi says of the organisation launched with a small and dedicated committee.
"It was designed around starvation in Africa, particularly Sudan, where … the displacement camps were getting overpopulated with people who were assessed as having acute starvation, which means you don't know where your next feed's coming from for up to seven to 10 days," Mr Houghton adds.
Unlikely friends' mission to send wheat to Sudan
A civil war has forced more than 11.5 million people from their homes in Sudan. The World Food Programme estimates 19 million people, or two out of five Sudanese people, face acute food insecurity.
"[I've] never been able to understand why there are people starving in the world when we produce so much in this part of the world, but in other parts of the world as well," Mr Houghton says.
He points to a silo outside his kitchen window.
Silos on Rob Houghton's farm hold the wheat to be sent to Sudan. (ABC Landline)
Most people would not look twice at the stainless steel structure, but when Mr Houghton looks at it, he sees enough grain to feed tens of thousands of people for a month.
Mr Dachi is in awe of Mr Houghton's determination.
"Rob just says, 'Let's do it', but I'm like, 'You're crazy, we can't just get up from a coffee and ship food to Sudan, it doesn't work like that,'" Mr Dachi says.
"There are so many obstacles, there's bureaucracy, there are so many hurdles to jump, and he just says, 'No, we're doing it.'"
The pair set to work, Mr Dachi with his global contacts and Mr Houghton calling on neighbours to donate the grain.
Very quickly, 100 tonnes of premium wheat was committed. The hurdles have been many, not least war in the Middle East adding layers of complexity and cost.
Rob Houghton with Sekai and Ken Dachi and daughter Alakara. (ABC: Back Roads)
"It's changed the cost of transporting grain on trucks as well as ships and then back onto trucks," Mr Houghton says.
"It was going to cost us around $2,900 a tonne and the wheat's worth $300 a tonne here in our silo so we're contributing a little more than 10 per cent."
Grain of Hope is fundraising through registered charity Myriad Australia, seeking $130,000 towards the cost of shipping.
The plan is for the wheat to travel by truck to the Port of Melbourne and then be containerised and shipped via Perth and Singapore through to Djibouti and on to Ethiopia, a journey that would take about 45 days.
Logistics of shipping 100 tonnes of grain
Grain of Hope is hopeful it could ship the grain during June.
While it may have been easier to write a cheque and send money, rather than grain, Mr Houghton says to do so would miss the point.
"It's not about easy and it's also not just about food. This project is so rewarding to even think about it," he says.
Grain of Hope plans to ship the wheat to Sudan via the Port of Melbourne. (ABC: David Sparkes)
"When I close my eyes at night, I think about what a great project to be involved in, how lucky I am to have Ken in my life, to even initiate such a thing and then for us to follow it through, it's so rewarding … writing out a cheque isn't that rewarding."
Mr Dachi is optimistic that Grain of Hope will grow beyond the shipment of 100 tonnes of grain, and set a model for others around the world, empowering them to respond.
"What we are hopefully demonstrating is that ordinary folk can do their fair share and ebb away, chip away [at] the problem," Mr Dachi says.
Asked about how it is that two men eating mung beans in Leeton came to consider a gesture towards those so far from home, Mr Dachi is clear: "It's not geography, it's just a human response."
Rob Houghton says it would be easier to write a cheque but the project is far more rewarding. (ABC Landline)
"To whom much is given, much is required … you have to consider your place of opportunity and privilege," he says.
"You don't apologise for those that are purely circumstantial, but what do you do with them once you've identified your place of opportunity and privilege? What do you do with that … that's it."
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