1. http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/index.htm
An incredible 24,000 people die from hunger each and every day.
More than 840,000,000 people suffer from hunger. That's about three times the population of the
USA. No, this isn't some new famine that just occurred. This is chronic, persistent hunger, which kills
24,000 people every day, or over 8 million each year. Three of four who die are younger than five.
In fact, famine accounts for less than 10% of these deaths. The other 90% are in situations where
people live their entire lives without enough food to eat all of the time. They often go hungry not only
physically, but due to other factors in their communities are often undernourished mentally.
Starting to wonder why famines are featured news stories, while there's never anything about chronic
hunger? Especially since famines represent such a small part of these deaths? It's because famines
are not part of everyday life. When a plane crashes and kills 240 people, it's on the news for days. But
because 100 times that many deaths occur from chronic hunger every single day, it's not anything
special.
What's even worse is that there really is enough food produced globally to feed everyone on the
planet. In many countries, distribution of the food is also working just fine. Sometimes, the problem
lies at the simple fact that people don't earn enough money to buy food because they lack the
education or skills necessary to get a good job.
The number of people that die of hunger each day has decreased 58% from 41,000 in 1977 to 24,000
in 1997. The solutions to hunger exist and are being implemented even as we speak. There is no
reason for this senseless death to continue any longer. We need your help to put this to an end, once
and for all.
Past
Major hunger problems have occurred throughout history, leaving millions of people dead or suffering from the
effects of hunger. This area gives information on a number of case-studies that outline the problem, causes and
consequences of major hunger events in different countries over the years. Please choose a case-study from below
to read more about it.
Every day around 24,000 people die directly from hunger or hunger related diseases - an unbelievable
amount. This area outlines why the problem is occurring, where it is occurring and to what extent. Please
choose an article from below to continue.
The world hunger problem: Facts, figures and statistics
In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the
World Bank has called "absolute poverty"
Every year 15 million children die of hunger
For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5
years
Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation.
Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the
world spends on its military in two days!
The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is
under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of
starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.
One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age
of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture
2. The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia
together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin
America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy
Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day,
while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of
countries with 45 percent of the world's people. UNICEF
3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.
In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the
U.S. has an inadequate diet.
In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were
chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of
white children.
The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The
U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at
nearly twice the rate of white infants.
One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every
night.
Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-
Saharan Africa are malnourished.
In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by vitamin A
supplementation programmes in developing countries.
Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion
unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death
About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age
To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what
the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.
The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least
developed countries on the planet.
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger
It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition,
about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.
The world hunger problem: Current campaigns
We've described many issues causing hunger, and you can take a look at different ways
hunger can be solved (see solutions to world hunger). There are many different organizations
fighting hunger today, but for the most part, they can be classified into two main groups.
I frequently see canned-food drives at my school. Students are asked to bring in canned
goods and they are accumulated and sent off somewhere. The problem with this method of
ending hunger is that providing food is not a long-term solution. It forces the people who
receive this food to become reliant on it, instead of on themselves.
The other type of organization is that which believes in making a country reliant on itself.
Organizations like The Hunger Project believe in "society-wide transformation" led by
"indigenous leadership," says Lee Traband on its staff. These organizations work to build
infrastructure that will allow a country to be self-sufficient, and not rely on other countries for
aid. This is a long-term solution which allows the country to survive without foreign charity.
The world hunger problem: Countries affected by hunger
The map below shows the world hunger problem by
showing the prevalence of undernourishment in each
country. Prevalence of undernourishment is measured by
the share of a country's total population that is
undernourished. The higher the prevalence, the more
widespread the problem. To help analyse and monitor
progress, five prevalence categroies have been
The 5 prevalence categories used in the problem map
established and are shown to the right of this text. below.
3. Afghanistan Germany Mozambique
Bangladesh India Niger
Brazil Italy North Korea
Canada Jamaica Russia
China Japan Rwanda
Eritrea Mali Ukraine
Ethiopia Mexico United Kingdom France
Cambodia
Leader: Prime Minister Hun Sen
Nearly one in five Cambodians don’t get enough to eat. Forty per cent of Cambodian children are
malnourishedmore than half of children under the age of five are underweight; 56 per cent are stunted
due to chronic malnutrition and 13 per cent show signs of wasting, from severe and rapid weight loss.
China
Leader: President Hu Jintao
In recent years, the percentage of undernourished people in China has dropped from 15 to 10 per
cent. By investing heavily in smallholder and poor farmers, as well as implementing policies of
equitable land distribution, the Chinese government was able to pull 58 million people out of hunger
between 1990 and 2011.
CARE’S VISION
Our Vision
We seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in
dignity and security. CARE International will be a global force and a partner of choice within a worldwide
movement dedicated to ending poverty. We will be known everywhere for our unshakable commitment to the
dignity of people.