POVERTY and HUNGER

18,000 Children Die Every Day From Hunger And Malnutrition

[Associated Press, February 2007]

Some 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, a "terrible indictment of the world in 2007," the head of the United Nations food agency said. James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate and eliminate hunger — especially among children.

"The little girl in Malawi who's fed, and goes to school: 50 percent less likely to be HIV-positive, 50 percent less likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby," he said in an interview Friday. "Everything about her life changes for the better and it's the most important, significant, humanitarian, political, or economic investment the world can make in its future."

Morris, an American businessman and former president the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, one of the largest charitable organizations in the U.S., is stepping down as executive director of the Rome-based World Food Program in April after five years of leading the world's largest humanitarian organization.

He said that while the percentage of people who are hungry and malnourished has decreased from a fifth of the world's population to a sixth of the population, the actual number of hungry people is growing by about 5 million people a year because of the rising population.

"Today 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children. 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition," Morris said. "This is a shameful fact — a terrible indictment of the world in 2007, and it's an issue that needs to be solved."

Morris said the largest number of malnourished children are in India — more than 100 million — followed by nearly 40 million in China. "I'm very optimistic that India and China are very focused on this issue," he said. "They're making great progress — (but) need to do more. (It) needs to be a top priority." Elsewhere, there are probably 100 million hungry children in the rest of Asia, another 100 million in Africa where countries have fewer resources to help, and 30 million in Latin America, he said.

As Morris prepares to leave his post, he said the two issues of greatest concern are the increasing number of impoverished people and the "very significant, growing number of natural disasters around the world." According to the World Bank, natural disasters have increased fourfold over the last 30 years, he said. That means several billion people need instant help over the course of a decade because of disasters such as the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, or drought in southern Africa. The response to these disasters and conflicts such as in Sudan's Darfur region and Lebanon has meant that most development aid has been used to save lives — not to help communities prevent disasters and promote development through agricultural programs, education for children and water conservation, Morris said.

The agency's biggest operation today is in Darfur, where violence and security are major problems and 2.5 million people have fled their homes and now live in camps. "Our convoys are attacked almost daily. We had a truck driver killed there at the end of last year. Our convoys coming through Chad from Libya are always at risk. When the African Union troops were there, that was very helpful. The U.N. troops will be even more helpful."

Mr Morris was referring to a plan for an AU-U.N. force to be deployed in Darfur, which is awaiting approval from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. American diplomat Josette Sheeran will replace Morris, who plans to head home to Indianapolis. "I will work as hard as I can every day of the rest of my life to see that more resources are available to feed hungry children," Morris said.

Map Showing Distribution Of Poverty

MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN - VOICES AGAINST HUNGER

"CONCERN" HELPS PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY

Our mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives, which last and spread without ongoing support from Concern. To this end, Concern will work with the poor themselves, and with local and international partners who share our vision, to create just and peaceful societies where the poor can exercise their fundamental rights.

To achieve this mission we engage in long term development work, respond to emergency situations, and seek to address the root causes of poverty through our development education and advocacy work.

Our Identity – Who We Are:

Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

Our Vision – for Change:

A world where no-one lives in poverty, fear or oppression; where all have access to a decent standard of living and the opportunities and choices essential to a long, healthy and creative life; a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

How Concern Started

The catalyst which gave rise to Concern was the disastrous famine in Biafra in 1968. Ireland had many close links with Biafra via the thousands of Irish missionaries who worked there and who found themselves caught up in the conflict of the Nigerian civil war. Among the many people In Ireland who expressed their anxiety about the famine-stricken victims was a group of individuals collectively known as ‘Africa Concern.’

Donations poured in

On 28 June 1968, Biafran-based Catholic Bishop J.B. Whelan and Anglican Bishop G.E.C Cockin launched a Send One Ship Appeal (SOS) before a large gathering in Dublin. The target of the appeal was to send one ship, loaded with relief supplies, from Ireland to Biafra. Donations poured in, and within three months over a quarter of a million pounds had been raised. A ship – the SS Columcille – was purchased, and on 6 September 1968 she sailed for Sao Tome, a small island off the coast of West Africa. In order to avoid Nigerian Government detection, supplies were flown nightly into Biafra. Other ships loaded with relief supplies followed.

What happened next?

Following the end of the fighting in January 1970, the situation in Biafra began to improve. For Africa Concern it became a time of self evaluation, and it was decided that it would concentrate on small projects, particularly in Africa, and give financial and personnel assistance to people operating both relief and development projects in other parts of the world. Events in other parts of the world, however, soon saw Africa Concern spread its work. A cyclone disaster in East Pakistan, civil war and refugee problems in Calcutta meant that a change of name had to come about.

Today Concern is working in up to 30 countries.

Forming alliances around the globe.

In order to achieve our mission, Concern will respond to people in a caring and personalised manner, which emphasises their human and cultural dignity. Concern is prepared to work effectively with poor people, in the most difficult of circumstances, by forming alliances and working arrangements with other organisations and government bodies.

Knowing when to engage and respond

Concern’s aim is to balance enthusiasm and necessary risk-taking with prudent judgment and a professional approach, and to use creativity and pragmatism in the face of obstacles to its work. Concern will engage in long-term development work, respond to emergency situations and undertake development education and advocacy on those aspects of world poverty which require national or international action.

Visit CONCERN

DROUGHT AND FOOD SHORTAGES IN HORN OF AFRICA COUNTRIES

Drought and food shortages are affecting many countries in the Horn of Africa. Although, in many areas, cereal harvests in 2005 were an overall improvement on previous years, severe droughts have left millions on the brink of starvation. The four Horn of Africa countries of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are some of the worst affected, where an estimated 8 to 9 million people are in need of assistance.

SOMALIA

* Approximately 2 million people are affected by this crisis in Somalia.
* Insecurity is a huge problem. Transporting food aid by sea is being severely disrupted by piracy, and WFP and other agencies have to resort to transport over land, which is more costly, time consuming, and is also dangerous.
* Some water is accessible from wells but many were damaged by conflict and need to be re-built.

CONCERN’S RESPONSE

* Concern is currently engaged in rehabilitating wells in the Bay Region and has restored a number of water catchment areas (where rainwater can be collected) in a cash-for-work programme with local communities. These are filling with water now that the rains have come. Concern has also trucked water to communities without any access to water sources. This programme is benefiting approximately 100,000 people. We are now planning to expand this work in the region and incorporate a seeds/tools component to help those engaged in farming to recover.

* Concern has started to engage in the Gedo region providing technical support in Community Therapeutic Care (CTC) to the Gedo Health Consortium, which is well established there.
* Discussions are underway to see if Concern should develop a livestock restocking programme.

ETHIOPIA

* 2.5 million people in Ethiopia are are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
* Some rain has fallen but the effect of this is not yet clear.

CONCERN’S RESPONSE

* Security issues in the Somali Region have so far prevented Concern from implementing its planned nutrition programme for 18,000 people in one district. Attempts to intervene are continuing.
* Concern has started to engage in blanket feeding for 2 months in the Afar Region. Supplementary feeding will continue for 3 months after (for pregnant and lactating women and children). Approx. 16,000 people will benefit.

KENYA

* 3.5 million in need of food aid.
* 80% of the land is arid or semi-arid and is mainly pastoral.
* People have experienced 5-6 seasons of poor/failed rains.

CONCERN’S RESPONSE

* Concern is currently working with 3 local partners implementing nutrition and CTC; improving access to water by building bore holes and rehabilitating wells; and providing some livestock fodder. Approx. 54,000 people are benefiting from this programme.
* Many animals are gathering at water holes in search of water, dying there, and then there is a risk of contamination of the water supplies. Concern is involved in a project removing these animals from the vicinity of the water holes.
* A major restoration programme is to commence in the next few months helping people rebuild their herds of livestock; helping pastoralists develop new higher-value products from their animals (such as hides, processed milk, bone products); establishing an animal health/vaccination programme; and providing seeds/tools for farmers.

ERITREA

* The Horn of Africa drought is also affecting Eritrea, although there were good rains at the end of 2005.
* Concern has been asked to cease operations due to not meeting the requirements for an operational permit and is seeking clarification as to what requirements Concern might not have met.

FEED THE CHILDREN

Our Mission

Feed The Children is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization providing physical, spiritual, educational, vocational/technical, psychological, economic and medical assistance and other necessary aid to children, families, and persons in need in the United States and internationally.

What We Do

During our 27-year history, Feed The Children has created and developed one of the world's largest private organizations dedicated to feeding hungry people. Last year, Feed The Children shipped 183 million pounds of food other essentials to children and families in all 50 states and in 65 foreign countries. Feed The Children supplemented more than 1,463,000 meals a day worldwide.

Our system is fast and efficient. We deliver the food to partner organizations that speed it to over 60,000 other groups who work with the hungry.

International Outreach

Feed The Children's international programs consist of four components:

* Feeding
* Development/Self-help
* Medical
* Emergency Relief

Since 1979, we have provided food, clothing, medical assistance and educational opportunities to underprivileged children in 118 nations around the world. Through schools, orphanages and church-related feeding programs, Feed The Children touches the lives of thousands of children overseas. We send shipments to Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union Republic where direct distribution is made to recipients. Additionally, we provide financial assistance to orphanages, schools and other charitable groups in these regions.

A key goal is to help needy families move beyond relief assistance and become productive and self-sufficient members of their community. Through long-term, self-help development programs funded by grants and by our Child Sponsorship partners, tens of thousands of families in foreign lands have increased their earning potential through new, marketable skills.

Medical Team

Our medical team travels to third world countries with volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists and other support personnel. The teams perform minor surgery, treat diseases and injuries, and provide much-needed medicine. Our eye clinic provides optical exams and glasses.

Builders for Children

A unique program designed to provide hands-on opportunities for individuals to use their gifts and talents in short-term construction projects. Construction teams are dispatched to help meet practical needs of children and their families in developing countries. The program offers life-changing challenges to framers, roofers, brick masons, electricians, plumbers, and others who may have little experience in construction but want to help reach out to those in desperate need.

How the ABC Works - Sharing Our Vision for Caring

Helping Families around the World

Many people around the world are in desperate need. Poverty, death, disease, and disasters wreak havoc in the lives of millions. Many times little children are the ones who suffer the most from these problems, and they are the ones most desperately in need of your help.

How You Can Make a Difference

Feeding Programs

Sometimes the terrible reality of the millions of hungry children around the world can seem overwhelming. But you don't have to stand by hopelessly while children are going hungry. Find out how you can help

Disaster Relief

Feed The Children responds to disasters worldwide, wherever they strike. You can help provide food and supplies to children and their families quickly and efficiently. From hurricanes to tsunamis to earthquakes and floods, you can be certain that your support of Feed The Children's efforts will save lives and bring hope to people in great need.

Disaster Relief

Feed The Children provides help to victims of natural disasters occurring in the United States and around the world. Depending on the situation, Feed The Children responds by providing food, water, blankets, cleaning supplies or other relief supplies to individuals and families affected.

In the U.S.

Because of our fleet of semi-tractor trailer trucks, Feed The Children is often the first relief agency to bring help after a disaster. The most recent example of this was when we sent over 615 truckloads of supplies to children and families affected by the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Internationally

Feed The Children responds to disasters wherever they strike, providing food and supplies to children and their families in countries around the world. Feed The Children sent relief supplies to The Caribbean following the recent hurricanes, and also sent help to earthquake victims in Iran.

OUR DISASTER RELIEF PROGRAM

VICIOUS CYCLE of HUNGER, MALNUTRITION and POVERTY

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.

There are effective programs to break this spiral. For adults, there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and poverty.

[Sources: United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, UNICEF.]

DETAILS

The deaths you see on this site have one thing in common: they result from extreme poverty. Poverty keeps hungry people from buying enough food to nourish themselves. Poverty keeps sick people from receiving basic medical treatment or taking simple preventative measures. The vast majority of these preventable deaths occur among the poorest people in the poorest countries.

In September 2000, the 189 countries of the United Nations unanimously agreed to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty,” specifically hunger and the “major diseases that afflict humanity.”

To accomplish this great objective would be expensive, and the price was later estimated at about $195 billion a year. This amount of money could not be raised by private charities or individuals. It would require the combined efforts of governments throughout the world to do it.

COUNTRIES AGREE TO 0.7 % IN INTERNATIONAL AID

In the March 2002 Monterrey Conference, 22 of the world’s wealthiest countries (listed above) agreed to make “concrete efforts” towards the goal of each giving 0.7 per cent of their national income as aid to the poorest countries. This conference was attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, and many other world leaders.

In the September 2002 Johannesburg Summit, these same 22 counties re-affirmed their commitment to reach the 0.7% goal. This would provide enough money to raise the $195 billion per year. This would allow the problems of extreme poverty to be “substantially eliminated,” in the words of the United Nations.

WHY THE 0.7 % AGREEMENT?

The countries made this agreement because they realized that it was hard for each country on its own to give a consistent, minimum level of aid each year. Despite good intentions, a country would find that the aid it wanted to give was eaten away by competing political interests, concern about budget deficits, “problems at home,” “problems abroad,” and so on. So they agreed to a minimal, flat rate that each country could afford each year regardless of its current political or economic state.

The 0.7% figure may sound complicated, but it is actually quite simple. You take the total income earned by all the people in the country and then the government gives 0.7% (seven tenths of one percent) of that as aid. Or to look at it another way: for every $100 earned in the country, the country gives 70 cents in aid. For every $10, the country gives 7 cents.

HOW ARE THE COUNTRIES DOING?

Five countries have already met the goal to give 0.7% of their income in international aid: Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

In 2002 and 2003, five other countries set up a schedule to give 0.7%: Belgium, Ireland, Finland, France, and Spain.

In July 2004, the United Kingdom set up a schedule to give 0.7%.

In April 2005, Germany set up a schedule to give 0.7%.

In May 2005, Austria, Greece, Italy, and Portugal set up a schedule to give 0.7%.

It was not easy for many of the countries to set up a schedule to reach the 0.7% goal. In some cases, such as Britain and Germany, it took the combined effort of many thousands of citizens writing and petitioning their government to get it done.

THE REMAINING SIX COUNTRIES

Only six countries have not yet set up a schedule to give 0.7%. These are Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. To raise the $195 billion a year, these six will need to reach the goal. These six countries are all democracies. All that is necessary for them to reach the 0.7% goal is for enough of their citizens to show their support.

[Sources: UN Millennium Project, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).]

These first few sites offer information following up on what is presented here on Poverty.com.

One Campaign

Millennium Campaign

UNICEF

United Nations World Food Program (WFP)

Next are listed many major organizations that have related information about poverty, hunger, and preventable diseases. Together, these organizations comprise hundreds of thousands of men and women all over the earth. Many of these individuals work long hours in the fight against poverty, often in sparse or dangerous conditions.

Action Against Hunger

ADRA International – Adventist Development & Relief Agency International

Africare

American Jewish World Service

American Red Cross

AmeriCares

Australian Overseas Aid Program (AUSAID)

Austrian Development Cooperation

Baptist World Aid

Belgian Development Cooperation

Bread for the World

Canadian International Development Organization (CIDA)