“I know the orphan life and I know what an empty belly feels like. I remember day after day when all we ate was pieces of boiled pumpkin. The hard times were February and March before we cut the wheat. And July through September before the rice harvest. I remember my mouth watering for rice and wanting it so so bad. When you have no food you feel even hungrier.

There was one day in July when I was ten years old. My mom had just died and I was hungry and I was walking through the village in the evening when everyone was eating dinner. People store their pumpkins and cucumbers on the grass roof to dry. I saw a big juicy cucumber at a neighbors house. I was hungry and didn’t think I would get caught so I took it. The next day my neighbor found out it was me and she came yelling and cursing at me. I still remember that day now, getting yelled at as a hungry kid for stealing a cucumber to eat. It brings tears to my eyes.

“Looking at everyone’s faces today, I can’t help but look back at my own life and I feel so happy. I can work early mornings and late into the evening for this purpose. Food protects our life. Any way, any how, we need to save our kids and fill their bellies. This has been one of my proudest times to be Kopila Valley’s chairman.”
– Tope, Co-founder and Chairman of Kopila Valley