Global Hunger is the most prevalent issue in the modern world. In much of Asia, Africa and other parts of the developing world, people are malnourished and do not have access to sufficient food. From lack of food, children suffer the most with many young people being underweight, having a higher under-five mortality rate and most children in the affected areas being malnourished. Hunger levels in third-world countries has decreased however in war affected countries such as Iraq, hunger has increased severely.
Malnourishment effects the body all through a person’s life, from the moment they are born to when they are old, if they survive that long. Life long hunger can increase mortality rate, stunt growth, increase risk of diseases and mental impairment. World Vision, an organisation that helps third world countries to overcome “poverty and injustice”, has a program called the 40 Hour Famine where volunteers collect donations and in return give up something that people in impoverished countries do not have such as food, furniture and technology for 40 hours.
This year the 40 Hour Famine will held on the 14th to the 16th of August and this year 38,461 people have participated in the event. Through surveys, posters and group involvement in the 40 Hour Famine, I will raise awareness and knowledge about Global Hunger around my school. In order to investigate the statistics surrounding Global Hunger and its funding I used three different methods to gain information. •Primary Source – School Survey • Primary Source – Subject Expert Survey • Secondary Source – Internet research These sources are all reliable for accurate information in order to properly understand and improve on global hunger tandards.
In the global community, most of the world doesn’t have enough to eat, especially compared to the likes of Westernised Countries. Global Hunger is measured by a GHI (Global Hunger Index) Score where all countries are given a score between 0-100, 0 being low to no hunger, 100 being alarmingly hungry. The GHI combines three equally weighted indicators: 1) the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population; 2) the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five; 3) the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
As of 2014, The hungriest countries according to GHI Score are Burundi with a GHI Score of 35. 6; Eritrea, 33. 8; Timor-Leste, 29. 8. “GHI Scores have increased for Swaziland, Iraq Comoros and Burundi between the years 1990 and 2014”. Malnutrition and deficiency in essential nutrients is common in many hungry countries, and the consequences of malnutrition are detrimental to lifelong health. 500,000 children world-wide are going blind annually from vitamin A deficiencies. This can effect their chances of getting a job, getting married and doing simple, everyday tasks.
In most of Africa, South Asia and South America, anaemia is prevalent mong preschool age children which prevents them from attending school and receiving an education which inturn prevents them from getting a well paying job, which means they are not able to provide for their children. This will then prevent their children from going to school, which start the cycle of poverty and hunger all over again. Global hunger can effect mental health as well as physical. A survey (Appendix 1+2) was conducted around my school to investigate the public’s knowledge on the prevalence of global hunger and the funds.
There were a total of 20 students and teachers who took the survey which consisted of 6 questions, which were based around the prevalence of global health and the funding towards it. From the results of the survey it can be concluded that most of the general public is not well informed of current global hunger statistics and information. Most participants thought that Ethiopia is the hungriest country in the world when in fact, it is Burundi which is located in Africa. Most people thought that world hunger was getting the funding it needed, however this is not the case.
The cost of stopping world hunger is approximately $30 billion a year. The actual amount funded by the US is $80 million annually. When asked how much the participant think should be raised to help countries in need most people thought that it depended on their socioeconomic status but many simply said “a lot”. This is contradictory to another question asked “Have you participated in the 40 Hour Famine, why of why not? ” where most people said they have not participated because they “could not be bothered”.
This suggests more motivation needs to be introduced to the fundraiser in order to include more young people in the event. Other than World Vision, there are a number of other organisations targeted towards fighting Global Hunger. While World Vision’s 40 Hour Famine simply raises money and sends meals and food to impoverished countries, other organisations use money from donations to help in other ways.
Stop Hunger Now, another global hunger initiative, packages meals in currently 71 countries, 88. % of donations fund their meal programs; the World Food Program, not only fight hunger and nutrition problems but they fight other issues such as HIV/AIDS and help communities to grow their own food; Action Against Hunger runs programs that target problems in nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, food security and livelihood, emergency response. There are a number of other organisations that run programs that help in the long term by teaching poor countries how to farm and grow their own food supply, which reducing, not only the hunger itself but their need to overwork for money in order to supply their families with food.
In order to be better informed on the subject of Global Hunger || emailed World Vision about the 40 Hour Famine and how people are involved. Michelle, a Supporter Service Consultant at World Vision answered my questions. Michelle said that their program targets participants of all ages however, more specifically, young people. She also, said that the 40 Hour Famine not only targets hunger but also “nutrition training for parents, child health services and better agricultural practices”.
This year participants in the 40 Hour Famine will be helping to fund programs in several countries such as: Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Malawi, Nepal, Swaziland and Uganda. When I participated in the 40 Hour Famine there was a week of preparation before the event started. In order to raise awareness to other students, a message in the morning notices told the students who wished to participate what the 40 Hour Famine was about and where and how they could sign up or donate to the cause. Then 20 posters such as Appendix 3 were hung up around the school for those who did not hear the notice and to prompt students further to join.
When students did approach me or other event co-ordinators an account on the official 40 Hour Famine website (http://www. 40hourfamine. com. au/) for sponsors to donate to. Overall there were 6 students who joined the event. There were not as many participants as predicted and, as was mentioned in the survey, the reason was most likely due to lack of motivation for students to participate. For my participation in the social action | gave up verbal communication for 40 hours, as did most people due to it being more convenient than not eating, no furniture etc.
Overall I raised $17. 30 due to there only being a short amount of time to collect donations from sponsors. I received an official certificate for participating in the event (Appendix 4). In the future there could have been more preparation before the event in order to advertise the event and allow other students to sign up. There also could have been a presentation informing students about Global Hunger which might have motivated students more by seeing the effects of long-term hunger on people in all stages of life.
I the future more than one of World Vision’s fundraisers could have been run through out the school to help aid in the improvement of Global quality of life. World Vision has programs for Emergency Responses for example, if there is a natural disaster somewhere around the world, World Vision helps by setting up a page for people to donate to. Current appeals that are open for donations are: Cyclone Pam, Gaza crisis, India/ Myanmar flooding, Nepal earthquake, South Sudan Crisis, Syria Crisis and the West Africa Ebola Outbreak. However, focusing on Famine specifically, there needs to be more government action.
The US spends a total of $664. 84 billion dollars annually on their defence budget as of 2011 while there needs to be a total $30 billion spent annual to eradicate global hunger. Even with the abundance of programs being run there is still more that can be done by health experts. Having nutritionists, horticulturalists and general health care workers can help in areas that have been unable to receive help fast enough from large organisations. They can also help to maintain the current level of hunger in improved countries so there are no future hunger inclines among the populations.
The 40 Hour Famine helps people in poverty directly, and also helps the global community to thrive and improve. On their website it describes the specific aspects of impoverished countries they strive to improve. Their main objectives are to “run nutrition training for parents, implement child health services and teach better agricultural practices”. The 40 Hour Famine has helped the global community to improve by raising $200 million over their 40 years of operation. Improving the hunger levels globally they are also helping to improve the socioeconomic status of many countries.
Being able to work efficiently and a lesser need to over work themselves has improved the quality of life in countries such as “Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Malawi, Nepal, Swaziland and Uganda”. Overall the 40 Hour Famine within my school was a success even with some improvements needing to be made. The 40 Hour Famine strives to improve the lives of many people all over the world in many different ways, as do many other projects. Hunger affects many people all over the world with devastating effects and the 40 Hour Famine helps to reduce and ultimately eradicate hunger and its symptoms.