World Hunger - Listen

[World Hunger]

Every day, over 29,000 children die from preventable diseases, including malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. Among these, malnutrition is associated with over half of these deaths. According to the dictionary, malnutrition is:

malnutrition n. a lack of nutrients in the diet or lack of absorption of nutrients due to digestive disorders, which leads to many deficiencies including vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Lack of absorbed nutrients can lead to severe illness resembling malnutrition.

Over 852 million people in the world are suffering from malnutrition. Within the last 50 years, 400 million people worldwide have died from hunger – three times the amount of people killed in all the wars fought the entire 20th century.

Watch this: count to 4 with me.

1.

2. .

3. . .

4. . . .

Within those four seconds, someone just died from hunger.

Every 3.6 seconds, there is someone dying from hunger. Approximately 800 million people will suffer from hunger and starvation, but 100 times that much will actually die from malnutrition each year.

Shockingly, the wealthiest fifth of the world’s population consume 86% of all goods and services of the Earth, while the poorest fifth consume a mere 1%.

Of the Earth’s 6.39 billion population, 1.2 billion live on less than 1$ per day. The average American spends over fifty times that amount.

Even closer to home, 36.3 million people live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger, which includes 13 million children, representing one in ten households in the United States. According to a recent study, preschool and school-aged children experiencing severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression and behavior problems than children without hunger.

[Children]

Out of the world's population of those suffering from starvation or malnutrition, more than 153 million of these number are under the age of five. In Africa alone, children must walk miles every day to receive safe shelter and clean water.

On the flip side, there is a shocking different result for American children as obesity rates begin to increase dramatically. Within the US, there is a gradual decline of physical activity, healthy food intake and environmental factors. The efficient world built technology that the United States lives in today blinds us to the problems of the world.

[Taking Action]

In the society that we live in today, we need to look beyond the world that we live in and take a step out of our shoes to see what the rest of the world is suffering. Most of all, we need to realize that there are problems and we can make a difference.

The main question is: how?

The first step is to stop and take a look around you. Just stop moving for a heartbeat to hear the voices. They're faint, but they're there: people from Africa, Asia and Latin America countries. All around the world, there are people crying out from starvation and poverty, disease and death. There are thousands of widows, orphans and homeless left without hope in the world.

Listen to their voices.

Listen to the 15 million children dying each year from hunger. Listen to the widow watching her children go hungry. Listen to the hungry. Listen to the weak. Listen to the sick. Listen to the mute.

Listen to them, who can't be heard. Even if they're mute, they're still crying.

There are thousands of organizations working to raise money and food for these poverty-stricken countries, some of which include 30 Hour Famine from World Vision, World Food Programme, and many others. We don't have to go to Africa or Asia to make a difference: sometimes the problem is much closer to home.

We must take action to help those around us - volunteering for programs, helping out, or simply donating some extra change. What we must realize is that we can make a difference and we can change the world.

We just need to stop, and listen.

[World on Fire - Sarah McLachlan]

[References]

http://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/introduction/hunger_who.asp?section=1&sub_section=1

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/pages/about/world_hunger.html

http://www.worldhunger.org/

nuferm.com/glossary

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/index.htm

http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1894

http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm