Nutrition in Two Minutes
Short video from the World Food Programme about the importance of preventing and treating malnutrition.
What is chronic hunger?
People who are chronically hungry are undernourished. They don’t eat enough to get the energy they need to lead active lives. Their undernourishment makes it hard to study, work or otherwise perform physical activities. Undernourishment is particularly harmful for women and children. Undernourished children do not grow as quickly as healthy children. Mentally, they may develop more slowly. Constant hunger weakens the immune system and makes them more vulnerable to diseases and infections. Mothers living with constant hunger often give birth to underweight and weak babies, and are themselves facing increased risk of death.
Every day, millions of people around the world eat only the bare minimum of food to keep themselves alive. Every night, they go to bed not certain whether there will be enough food to eat tomorrow. This uncertainty about where the next meal will come from is called ‘food insecurity’. FAO defines food insecurity as:
“A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.”
On average, a person needs about 1800 kcal per day as a minimum energy intake.
Learn more about chronic hunger from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Child malnutrition in Somalia at dire levels - ICRC
GENEVA, July 13 (Reuters) - One in 10 children in parts of drought-hit Somalia is at risk of starving to death, twice as many as recently as March, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.
Malnutrition rates were believed to be significantly higher in other conflict-torn parts of central and southern Somalia, where few aid groups have been allowed to bring food relief.
“Levels of malnutrition have reached a new peak and are currently the highest in the world,” the ICRC said in a statement.
The independent aid agency, one of very few with access to Somalia’s worst-hit areas, said that even in the Bay and Lower Shabelle regions, the traditional breadbaskets, nearly 11 percent of children under five had severe acute malnutrition.
This meant they were at risk of starving to death. Rates were believed to be significantly higher in other areas.
A mother and child in Zinder, Niger. MSF has been treating malnutrition in Zinder region since 2005.
© Jean-François Herrera/MSF
Malnutrition: Hundreds of Thousands of Children Under Threat in Sahel
Throughout Africa’s Sahel region, MSF works to treat and prevent malnutrition during a particularly extreme food and nutrition crisis.
Childhood malnutrition is not limited to the countries covered in Starved For Attention. Be part of the Doctors Without Borders campaign to rewrite the story of malnutrition for 195 million children.
YOU CAN HELP! Sign the petition and reblog to ask your followers to do the same.
Do it, you guys.
Fight the Double Standard!
Got a Twitter account? Use your next tweet to fight the double standard in food quality!
Watch the film.
Tweet this:Why does @USAID send poor quality food to children overseas when US gives nutritious food to kids at home? http://bit.ly/9Br5oI
Done.
See the Starved for Attention film “Democratic Republic of Congo: The Malnutrition That Shouldn’t Be.”
Photos: DRC 2009 © Franco Pagetti/VII
——————————————————————————————————-You can help rewrite the story of malnutrition. Sign the petition >
From the Starved for Attention film “Democratic Republic of Congo: The Malnutrition That Shouldn’t Be.”
Photos: DRC 2009 © Franco Pagetti/VII
——————————————————————————————————-Take Action: SIGN THE PETITION
You guys really should watch that Doctors Without Borders video I just reblogged.
MSF does such amazing work and most of us fail to realize just how dire the situation is in the DRC. Sign the petition and learn about what MSF is doing to save lives.
“Democratic Republic of Congo: The Malnutrition That Shouldn’t Be,” the fourth story of malnutrition as part of the Starved for Attention campaign, has now launched!
In a somber, yet bold, reportage, photographer Franco Pagetti reveals the daily struggle to survive in North Kivus forbidding bush and teeming, fetid displaced persons camps, where food is scarce and the people are on edge, ready to run at a moments notice.
Photos: DRC 2009 © Franco Pagetti/VII
————————————————————————————————YOU CAN HELP! Sign the petition and reblog to ask your followers to do the same.
Do it, guys.
195 million stories of malnutrition. Rewrite the story.
Learn more and sign the petition from Doctors Without Borders.
At MSF’s clinic in the Balabala district of Djibouti, doctors and nurses scramble to treat a never-ending influx of young malnourished patients.
See the film: “Djibouti: Frustration”
Photo: Djibouti © Marcus Bleasedale/VII
A young girl holds her nephew who is suffering from malnutrition at a therapeutic feeding centre. One in five children dies before their fifth birthday.
-Afghanistan, BBC News
