Four Decades After Live Aid, Ethiopia’s Hunger Crisis Returns

“On the Frontlines of Hunger” reveals Tigray’s battle against hunger and global silence.

BLOOMFIELD, NJ, UNITED STATES, July 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Forty years after the world united through the historic Live Aid concerts to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, hunger still claims lives. The unprecedented global music event on July 13, 1985, sparked awareness, empathy, and action—raising vital funds and hope. Yet the momentum wasn’t enough to overcome the enduring forces of poverty, war, a global pandemic, and climate change—crises that serve as reminders that the fight against hunger is far from over.

Today, millions in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region—the epicenter of the famine that once shocked the world and inspired global action—are once again facing acute food insecurity, malnutrition, and chronic hunger, fueling fears of famine. A two-year armed conflict that ended in 2022 killed an estimated 600,000 people, displaced over a million, and was followed by a devastating drought that destroyed crops and disrupted planting and harvest cycles.

Since 2017, Mary’s Meals has collaborated with communities and trusted in-country partners to provide school meals and access to education across Tigray. Even during the brutal conflict, when its partner shifted from school feeding to emergency relief, it remained active in the region. In the post conflict period, Mary’s Meals worked alongside local communities to rebuild kitchens and restore hope—scaling its program from 10,000 to over 240,000 children fed every school day. Yet thousands more children remain in need, and Mary’s Meals continues working to reach them.

Now, a forthcoming documentary from Mary’s Meals reveals how violence, poverty, climate change, and drought have erased decades of progress, once again pushing the region to the brink of famine.

As the humanitarian crisis deepens, “On the Frontlines of Hunger” tells the untold story of Tigray through the voices of its people. Narrated by Emmy and Golden Globe–nominated actress Roma Downey, the film features exclusive interviews with Mary’s Meals founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow and musician and activist Sir Bob Geldof. It includes archival footage from Live Aid 1985 and powerful testimonies from those living and working in Tigray today.

With an estimated 4.5 million people in Tigray urgently needing emergency food aid and children dying of hunger, the crisis remains largely unreported due to restricted access for journalists.

“Most people still don’t know there is a crisis in Ethiopia. It seems Tigray is no longer a place of interest on the global agenda. Even when 90% of its population is in urgent need of food aid, the silence is deafening,” said Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.

As the first and only documentary of its kind, the film was made possible by Mary’s Meals trusted presence in Tigray, which granted rare access to document the region’s deteriorating conditions.

It introduces a group of Sisters in Mekelle who transformed a school feeding program into a lifeline for tens of thousands of war refugees. It also shares stories of formerly affluent families now begging for food, and of children sharing their only meal of the day with those in even greater need.

The film captures powerful testimonies from the people of Tigray, offering an unfiltered look at their struggle and resilience.

A film trailer can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BePQK39Zayk. For interviews with Mary's Meals International producers of the documentary, contact: Helena Finnegan at helena.finnegan@marysmeals.org

About Mary’s Meals

Now in its 23rd year, Mary’s Meals is a global movement that sets up school-feeding programs in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, where conflict, poverty and hunger often prevent children from gaining an education. Mary’s Meals works with in-country volunteers and trusted partners to provide one daily nutritious meal in a place of learning to bring children into the classroom to receive an education. This simple solution to help end world hunger also enables children to lift themselves from the cycle of hunger and poverty.

Mary’s Meals began by feeding 200 children in Malawi in 2002. Today, the organization feeds more than 2.6 million children every school day in more than 5,000 schools in the following countries: Benin, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Mary’s Meals is part of the global School Meals Coalition, an emerging initiative of governments and partners to drive actions that can urgently reestablish, improve, and scale up food and education systems. For more information about Mary’s Meals, visit marysmealsusa.org.

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Helena Finnegan
Mary's Meals
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