Hunger and malnutrition is the number one risk to the health worldwide. Think about this- half of the worlds population lives on less than $2 a day, 1 billion people in the world are hungry, and 1 in 7 people in the United States do not get enough food.
Hunger and malnutrition is the number one risk to the health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Despite
the fact that we produce more than enough to feed every single person on the
planet, nearly 1 billion people on the planet go to bed hungry every night. That means 1
in 7 people do not get enough food. The issue is not a shortage, but rather
the problem lies in that the undernourished who need food most cannot access
it.
WORLD HUNGER
-Nearly 50% the world’s population survive on less than $2 a day.
-About
20% of the world’s population, 1.2 billion people, live on less than $1
a day.
-50% of pregnant women in developing countries lack proper maternal care,
resulting in approximately 300,000 maternal deaths annually from childbirth.
-98% of the world's hungry live in developing countries;
-Women account for over
60% of the world’s hungry.
-A
few years ago, for every $1 received in aid, developing countries spent $13 on
debt repayments.
WOMEN AND HUNGER
Nearly half of all farmers are women, who produce more than
half the world’s food, according to World Watch. Yet, they’re often deprived of
basic rights which keeps them from producing to their full potential.
-There
are laws all around the world that prohibit women from being able to own or
inherit land, to take out loans, and make it difficult for girls to go to
school.
-Without
access to credit, women often cannot buy the resources essential to farming,
such as seeds, tools and fertilizers, or invest in irrigation and land
improvements.
-2/3
of the world’s illiterate adults are women. What does this have to do with
food? Many women farmers can’t even read the back of the seed packages. Being
able to read what it is that they are using will help them be more productive
farmers.
Gender
equality, food security, and sustainable development are not independent of
each other. In fact, not one of them can be achieved without the others.
Equality for female farmers is not just about empowering women--it’s about
ending hunger and poverty for everyone.
When hunger and under nutrition affect women, it also affects children.
When hunger affects children, it affects the future progress of the country.
CHILDREN AND HUNGER
19 million babies are born under nourished or with low birth weight due to the mother’s inadequate nutrition intake. Mothers cannot produce breast milk without proper nutrition which adds to the starvation of her baby, These babies are 20x more likely to die in infancy, and those who survive will likely be malnourished throughout their childhood and inevitably face health and learning problems all of their lives, which make it difficult to be self-sufficient and self-dependent. In essence, hunger and poverty are inherited and this is partially how the cycle of both continues.
-10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths
-1 out of 4 children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries are underweight
-In 2010, an estimated 7.6 million children — more than 20,000 a day — died.
-Every year, 15 million children die of hunger
-Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide
WHERE IS HUNGER THE WORST
Asia: 525.6 million
Sub-Saharan Africa: 214 million
Latin America and the Caribbean: 37 million
But hunger affects us right at home too!
1 of 7 people in the United States are hungry
CAUSES
-Conflict and war, which destroy the chance to earn a decent living.
-Poor people don’t have access to land to grow viable crops or keep livestock, or to steady work that would give them an income to buy food
-People sometimes use natural resources in ways that are not sustainable.
-There is not enough investment in many countries to support agricultural development.
-The drastic increase in food prices in 2008 have also pushed people into hunger.
-There is not yet the political will and commitment to make the changes needed to end hunger, once and for all.
SOLUTIONS
Women are the most effective solution to combating and preventing hunger. Giving women farmers more resources, equal rights and opportunity could increase yields by 20-30% and bring the number of hungry people in the world down by 150 million people.
Gender
equality, food security, and sustainable development are not independent of
each other. In fact, not one of them can be achieved without the others. Equality for female farmers is not just about empowering women--it’s about
ending hunger and poverty for everyone.
Other Solutions
1. Sustainable food
2. Access to credit
3. Food donations
4. Assistance in transitioning from poverty to self-dependance
5. Urban farming
6. Access to education
7. Government intervention
8. Empowering woman
9. Access to birth control and birth control education
WHAT YOU CAN DO!!
Hunger is a solvable problem, and this generation has a real possibility of seeing it come to an end. In order for this to happen, all of us around the world need to become active fighters against hunger.
1. There are 1 billion people hungry and 1 billion online! Half of the world's population lives on $2 a day. My challenge to you is to donate $2 to fight hunger and take to social media asking all your friends and family to donate $2 and continue to spread the word on their social media as well!
Labels:
Awareness
