The Day I Stopped Asking How to Feed People and Started Asking Why They Were Hungry

Why a little girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo chose to build farms instead of food lines.

By Laila Moen Founder & CEO, INUWA

A Little Girl Who Learned About Survival Before She Learned About Childhood

Every organization has an origin story.

Some begin with a business opportunity.

Others begin with a scientific discovery, an investment, or an idea scribbled onto a piece of paper.

INUWA began with a little girl who had no idea she would one day build an organisation.

I was born in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a country blessed with extraordinary beauty. When people hear the name Congo, many immediately think of war, conflict, and instability. I understand why. Those stories have travelled around the world.

But they are not the whole story.

When I think of Congo, I think first of green mountains stretching beyond the horizon. I think of fertile soil capable of feeding millions. I think of rivers that have sustained generations. I think of cultures rich with music, language, tradition, and resilience.

I think of home.

I also remember another reality.

I remember what it means to grow up surrounded by uncertainty.

Throughout much of my childhood, I survived repeated sexual violence. Those experiences left wounds that no child should ever carry. At a young age, I was also diagnosed with HIV.

The greatest form of aid is not giving people what they need for today. It is helping them build what they will need tomorrow.

Many people assume HIV changes everything.

In some ways, it does.

But what changed my life even more was what came afterwards.

War forced my family to flee our home.

Like millions of other Africans, we became refugees.

Uganda became the place where we searched not only for safety, but for the possibility of beginning again.

The Hunger I Never Forgot

There are some memories that never disappear.

One of mine is hunger.

Not the inconvenience of skipping lunch because the day became busy.

Not the decision to diet.

Real hunger.

The kind that follows you through the night.

The kind that makes children wonder whether tomorrow will be different.

There were days when our family went without proper food.

Sometimes two days.

Sometimes three.

As children, we still found reasons to laugh.

Children are remarkable like that.

But even while playing, we understood something was wrong.

As refugees, we received humanitarian assistance.

Food arrived.

Blankets arrived.

Medicine arrived.

Those things mattered.

Without them, many of us would not be alive today.

For that, I will always be grateful.

But even as a child, I noticed something.

The food always disappeared.

The opportunities never arrived.

People were given meals.

Very few were given jobs.

People were given temporary relief.

Very few were taught how to rebuild their future.

No one asked the young man what business he wanted to create.

No one asked the mother what skills she already possessed.

No one asked what dreams had been interrupted by war.

The aid kept us alive.

Opportunity could have changed our lives.

That lesson never left me.

The Question That Followed Me Across Continents

Years later, after rebuilding my life in Norway, I found myself thinking about those years almost every day.

I had survived.

I had access to healthcare.

I had opportunities that once felt impossible.

But millions of others were still standing exactly where I had once stood.

Waiting.

Hoping.

Wondering.

One question refused to leave my mind.

What if we stopped asking how to feed people and started asking why they were hungry?

The answer was never as simple as food.

Hunger is often the result of unemployment.

Of limited access to education.

Of conflict.

Of inequality.

Of missed opportunities.

Food relieves hunger.

Opportunity prevents it from returning.

That single belief became the foundation of INUWA.

Why We Chose the Soil

People often ask why our organisation chose agriculture.

The answer is simple.

Because everything begins with the earth.

Uganda is one of the most fertile countries on the African continent.

The soil can produce coffee, tea, vanilla, fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains, dairy products, and countless other crops.

The land has always been ready.

The people have always been capable.

Too often, it is opportunity that has been missing.

We do not see a farm.

We see a classroom.

We see employment.

We see entrepreneurship.

We see confidence.

We see families eating because someone finally had meaningful work.

More Than Farming

Our dream has never been to become another agricultural project.

The farm is only the first chapter.

Fresh tomatoes will become sauces.

Milk will become dairy products.

Herbs will become tea.

Coffee will be roasted, packaged, and sold.

Fruit will become juices and preserves.

Every harvest will move through processing facilities designed to add value before products reach local and international markets.

Every stage creates another job.

Every job creates another opportunity.

Every opportunity creates another future.

This is how communities become economically independent.

Thirty Young People

Every movement starts somewhere.

Ours begins with thirty young women and men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-nine.

Some will arrive with experience.

Others will arrive carrying only hope.

Among them will be refugees.

Young graduates.

Single parents.

People living with HIV.

People living with chronic illnesses.

People who have been told "no" more times than they can count.

We want to become the organisation that says "yes."

Not because we are doing anyone a favour.

Because talent exists everywhere.

Opportunity does not.

Africa Without Borders

People often ask why INUWA begins in Uganda.

My answer is deeply personal.

Uganda gave my family refuge.

It became part of my story.

Launching our first project there is our way of saying thank you.

But our vision has never ended at one border.

When I look at Africa, I do not see fifty-four separate countries competing against each other.

I see one continent connected by shared dreams.

Whether someone lives in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, or beyond, the desire is the same.

To work.

To provide.

To belong.

To build a future.

Uganda is where our roots begin.

Africa is where our branches will grow.

The Legacy We Hope to Leave

People sometimes ask me what INUWA means to me.

The answer is simple.

INUWA is everything I needed as a little girl.

It is opportunity instead of dependency.

It is dignity instead of pity.

It is possibility instead of limitation.

I cannot change my childhood.

I cannot erase the violence I survived.

I cannot erase the years we spent as refugees.

I cannot erase the nights my family went hungry.

But I can help create a future where fewer children experience those realities.

One day, I hope people walk through an INUWA farm without knowing my name.

I hope they meet a young woman leading a greenhouse.

A father managing a food-processing facility.

A refugee who now owns a thriving business.

A young person living with HIV who is recognised for their talent rather than defined by stigma.

If that happens, then my story will have become something greater than my own.

Because the greatest legacy is not the life we overcome.

It is the lives we make possible for others.

That is the future we are planting.

That is the harvest we hope will feed generations.

That is INUWA.