IF is a tiny but potently powerful word.
As I sit down to write this blog I can't help but be struck by how infinite one small word can be: IF.
This little word is central to a huge campaign that could have life changing consequences for people all over the world...
As a mum to two little ones, I enjoy these precious early years. We do the normal girly things mums across the land do with their babies, fun things; dressing up, watching movies, going on trips out and I structure the day, like everyone, around meal times for them.
Three solid square meals. I'm not much of a cook and will stress out about making even the simplest of recipes. However, I've been working with Save the Children and have travelled to a few countries with them now including my mum's homeland, the Philippines. What I've seen there as well as elsewhere is why I'm writing this blog. It's the reason why when I look into my fridge, my cupboards or at my daughters' dinner plates, I remember the people I've met there.
You see, I've seen real hunger. Here, when we say we're starving, we've usually missed a coffee break or are late on lunch. Over there, in the Philippines, Bangladesh and countless other countries, it's literally true and it's utterly devastating. I've held children twice the age of my eldest but half her size. I've climbed through faeces, rubbish and graves to reach a water supply unfit to water a dying plant, yet deemed the only source available for an entire slum community, to mix with formula for new-born babies. Worst of all, I've held weeping mothers who've buried their children from the effects of starvation, and who wish to die themselves from the utter grief were it not for the other little ones they need to feed.
It's hard for some people living in the UK, including my own family, to imagine what it's like to be desperately hungry. There are coffee shops, supermarkets and fast food chains on every high street and for most of us food is readily available. We're bombarded with images of food daily through adverts, magazines and cookery programmes, and we're able to make choices about what we feed our families - even our pets. However, millions of people around the world don't have that choice; millions don't have any food.
It's difficult to understand how it must feel to be unable to feed your child. To know that no matter how hard you work you'll never earn enough money to provide the food they desperately need. Many families I've encountered run themselves into unimaginable debt scraping together double their rent for just two tins of formula alone.
Perhaps what's hardest to comprehend is that two million children die from hunger every year and that this could all be avoided because the world produces enough food for everyone, yet not everyone has enough food.
And this is where that little word 'IF' comes in...
IF we all work together to fix the broken food system, the world will make major progress towards everyone having enough to eat.
Hunger is the greatest scandal of our age. It's the world's biggest killer. One in eight people on our planet are hungry, yet we produce enough food to feed everyone. The problem is not a shortage of food, but deep inequalities and rigged rules in the food system that mean the hungry do not get the food they need to live. The forces keeping people hungry include tax dodging, financial secrecy, land grabs and too little investment in small-scale agriculture.
The Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign is asking the government and G8 leaders to tackle these issues and to take three big steps towards ending hunger:
Clamp down on tax dodging and launch a convention on tax transparency to stop the flow of billions of pounds out of developing countries - money that could be used to end hunger.
Help poor countries make sure that everyone, especially children, have enough nutritious food to eat and support poor families to grow their own food.
Give people in developing countries more control over their land by protecting poor farmers from land grabs and using land to grow food not fuel.
On Saturday 8 June thousands of people will gather in Hyde Park for Big IF London, a huge day of action that will kick start IF's 10 day countdown to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. I am extremely proud to be part of this event and IF you come down to Hyde Park on Saturday you could help change the fate of millions.
IF enough people come together to show their support for the campaign, IF we all unite to say we want to make 2013 the beginning of the end for hunger, world leaders will have to sit up and listen.
It won't cost you anything but your voice. IF you can find the time. Please come and help us.
Myleene Klass will host the Big IF London on Saturday 8 June from 2pm-5pm in Hyde Park. For more event details and to sign up to the campaign visit www.enoughfoodif.org/g8/london