Archive for category: Hunger

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Female Farmers: The Key to End World Hunger?

Female_FarmersMore women are involved in farming than with any other occupation. In developing countries, female farmers perform almost half of all agricultural labor and account for an estimated two-thirds of the world’s 600 million impoverished livestock keepers. However, women in many of the poorest regions of the world are denied equal rights to access, use, inheritance and control of the land they rely on to survive.

With unequal access to tools, training and land, female-run farms produce between 14 to 30 percent lower yields, according to a 2014 study by the World Bank.

The same report determined that if female farmers were treated equally in agriculture across Africa farm yields would increase by up to 30 percent.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a percentage increase of that magnitude could feed an additional 150 million people every day, thereby reducing the number of undernourished people in the world by 12 to 17 percent.

Landesa is a rural development institute aimed at reforming laws and policy tools to help alleviate poverty, reduce hunger and ease land conflict. Their research illustrates the effects created when women are economically and socially empowered through secure legal rights to land.

According to Landesa, when women are given land rights they:

  • grow more on their land and their children are 33 percent less likely to be malnourished
  • are 8 times less likely to be victims of domestic violence
  • earn up to 4 times as much in income
  • are more likely to direct their wealth towards their children’s needs than men

U.N. Women, a United Nations entity for gender equality and female empowerment, describes gender equality and women’s rights as cross-cutting throughout the 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs are fundamentally linked to the lives of women and girls globally, especially those of rural women. This is particularly true for the goal to universally end poverty in all its forms, the goal to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture as well as the goal to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.

U.N. Women describe rural women as key agents for achieving the economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. Limited access to credit, health care and education are among the many challenges faced by women.

Land ownership and other means of women’s empowerment are crucial not only to the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities but also economic productivity, given women’s presence in the agricultural field.

– Kara Buckley

Sources: FAO, Landesa, Rockefeller Foundation, Take Part, UN Women
Photo: Google Images

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Read to Feed: Global Education Lesson Plans

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Anyone and everyone can change the world, even in the slightest way. An organization known as Read to Feed gives children the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of families living in poverty.

The program encourages childhood reading while raising awareness of extreme global poverty in young minds. Read to Feed teaches and informs students of the realities of malnutrition and poverty, inspiring them to help those in need and providing an educational incentive to do so.

Here’s how it works: A child chooses a sponsor for each book he or she reads during a period of time set by his or her Read to Feed leader. The sponsor agrees to provide a certain amount of money for each book read or hour spent reading. Then, after the books have been read and the funds collected, the child chooses an animal through Heifer International to give to a family experiencing poverty.

Heifer International is an organization dedicated to ending global poverty and world hunger. Heifer provides families in impoverished communities with livestock and training to combat malnutrition as well as build a sustainable lifestyle.

Furthermore, Heifer encourages the families they have helped to share the training they receive with other families in their communities and pass on the first female offspring of their livestock to another family in need, thus creating a cycle of sustainability that has the power to lift entire communities out of poverty.

The wide variety of livestock provides families with meat, milk, wool and manure to grow their own agriculture. Kids can participate in Read to Feed individually or in groups; however, the program most often takes place in a classroom setting.

Furthermore, Heifer provides Global Education Lesson Plans so that teachers can inform students of the realities of global poverty and the impact that they can make in changing its course.

Read to Feed ultimately provides children with a way to make a difference in many lives. Reading a book is a fun incentive to end extreme poverty, both stimulating a child’s mind by increasing the number of books they read, and their knowledge of the world. Anyone can make a difference and everyone– no matter what age– deserves the chance to try.

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Heifer 1, Heifer 2, Learning to Give
Photo: Hiefer International

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10 Top Philanthropists in Asia

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The United Nations, the World Health Organization and other aid groups estimate that almost one-third of people in Asia live on less than $1.51 per day. Here are some of the most successful philanthropists in Asia who are fighting to end poverty and hunger by 2030.

10 Significant Philanthropists in Asia

  1. Jack Ma—China: Founder and executive of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Ma donated $2.9 billion to charitable causes across China last year. Ma also set up a $2.4 billion trust for Hong Kong youth and rising entrepreneurs.
  2. Sunny Varkey—India: Founder of Gems Education and one of India’s most prominent entrepreneurs. Varkey has recently signed the Giving Pledge, which is a promise to give most of his wealth to philanthropic missions. His foundation seeks to train 250,000 teachers in order to help nearly 10 million students across India, China, Africa and the Middle East.
  3. P.J. Lhuillier—Philippines: Founder of the P.J. Lhuillier Group. In addition to providing 300 annual scholarships to impoverished students, Lhuillier has also established a foundation that enables dropouts to go back to school. The foundation already has 19 adult education centers open with 48 additional centers to open this coming year.
  4. Cho Gang-Gul—South Korea: Founder of Hannsem. The furniture magnate donated $400 million to a South Korean think tank that works across Asia to seek out and train a new generation of global leaders through an understanding of both Eastern and Western cultures.
  5. Jeffrey Cheah—Malaysia: Chairman for the Sunway Group. Since 1997, Cheah has donated nearly $50 million worth of scholarships for 20,000 low-income students. Cheah’s foundation has also donated $6.2 million to fund an exchange program between Southeast Asian institutions and Cambridge University.
  6. Mohamed Abdul Jaleel—Singapore: Founder of Mes Group. The construction mogul had to drop out of school when he was 16 to support his family. He has made it a life mission to help impoverished children get through school. For the past several years, he has given $1.1 million annually to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund, which gives students money for lunch meals and school supplies. Abdul Jaleel also donates an additional $1 million each year to schools in Singapore’s poorer neighborhoods.
  7. Philipp Graf von Hardenberg—Thailand: Founder of the Children’s World Academy. The German native moved to Thailand to provide aid after the 2004 Tsunami and has been helping impoverished children ever since. He set up an orphanage to help children affected by the devastation, and the same facility still operates to this day as a school for impoverished youth. The school has raised more than $5 million.
  8. Manny Pacquiao—Philippines: World boxing champion and Philippine Congressman. Pacquiao and his wife donated 200 college scholarships, funded full missions for Habitat for Humanity in the Southern Philippines and gave upwards of $400,000 in medical assistance to needy families.
  9. Hendro Gondokusumo—Indonesia: Founder of Intiland Development. As one of the largest property developers in Indonesia, Gondokusumo has just set up a new foundation aimed at giving low-income and impoverished families affordable and safe living in the capital Jakarta and across the island of Java.
  10. Yao Ming—China: Retired NBA All-Star. His foundation has helped repair schools and build sports facilities for hundreds of thousands of students in rural China. The Yao Foundation hopes to improve the lives of 150,000 children through sport and exercise by the end of this year.

– Joe Kitaj

Sources: Forbes 1, Forbes 2, Forbes 3
Photo: Flickr

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5 Things to Expect from the Post-2015 Development Agenda

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are set to expire at the end of 2015, and a new proposal of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be discussed in September. MDGs have helped alleviate poverty and hunger, reduce fatality rates for children under 5, improve maternal health and help prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading.

For the last 15 years, the MDGs have been the most important global humanitarian effort to help improve living conditions in developing countries. The SDGs have an even more ambitious agenda and will involve all member states instead of just developing countries.

Here are 5 things you can expect from the Post-2015 Development Agenda

  1. Goal 1 is to end all forms of poverty–and achieving this goal is realistic. The MDGs halved the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day. From 1990 to 2008, the extreme poverty rate fell from 47 percent to 24 percent. To eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, it would cost about $66 billion a year.
  2. Goal 2 focuses on ending hunger and improving nutrition. About 800 million people still live in hunger, and many children are underweight. Despite population growth, the number of hungry people has declined by 200 million since 1990, and it will cost $30 billion per year in order to end world hunger. By 2025, it would cost $300 billion, which is less than 1 percent of the world’s combined GDP.
  3. Goal 4 builds off of the MDG to achieve universal primary education and calls for member states to ensure children have free quality primary and secondary education that results in effective learning outcomes. This means ensuring that gender disparities are eliminated. By 2009, 43 million children were enrolled in primary education worldwide, but there are still about 60 million children not enrolled, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will involve tackling child labor, building more classrooms and training more teachers.
  4. Goal 9 promotes sustainable industrialization and the building of resilient infrastructure, including an increase in access to the Internet. About 66 percent of people globally do not have access to the Internet. The SDGs call for infrastructure developments in order to improve economic sustainability. Innovation will revolve around increased scientific research, enhanced technology and clean technologies and investments for the Internet and technology in developing countries.
  5. Goal 13 calls to take action on the impacts of climate change and may be one of the most challenging goals to reach. Climate change impacts poverty, economic growth and sustainability, but countries cannot work alone to reduce the impact of climate change. Individual cities will have to change climate policies because they generate 70 percent of carbon emissions. Partnerships between local governments, civil society and the private sector will help make this goal achievable.

If the commitment to the MDGs is a sign of things to come, then there will be many success stories involving the new SDGs.

– Donald Gering

Sources: End Poverty 2015, Global Education, Green Biz, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Internet.org, LA Times, UN
Photo: concorditalia

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The Poorest City in the World

The Poorest City in the World

A poor city in a wealthy country: Monrovia, Liberia.

In examination of the ten poorest cities in the world, all ten of them are in Africa. In a Western African country on the coast lies a city full of slums. Theorists suggest the poorest city in the world is in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. The population of Liberia is currently 4,294,000 and is one of the least populated countries in Africa. It is considered the fifth poorest country, despite being the oldest independent country.

The population suffers from poverty and hunger despite numerous political administrations and new policies being introduced. According to the United Nations’ The Food and Agriculture Organization, Liberia is a low-income and food-deficit country. Over half of the country’s population is food-insecure or highly vulnerable to food insecurity.

Twenty-nine percent of the population of the country live in Monrovia, for a total of 1,010,970 residents. At the turn of the century, 80 percent of the people living in the city were living in poverty. The gross national income is estimated at $790 USD annually. However, eighty-five percent of the population lives on less than one USD per day.

Conflict with q neighboring country, Sierra Leone, has had a major impact on the city. Despite the civil war that ended twelve years ago, the city still endures the effects. The constant turmoil between the two countries has caused the educational system to be broken down, abject poverty and inadequate educational access in these slums. The children of Monrovia continue to be subjected to the cycle of both poverty and illiteracy.

On the outskirts of the city, the agricultural sectors have major challenges that compound its poverty. There are low yields as a result of technological disadvantages. Inadequate roads and little to no access to markets limit the possible value chains. A majority of the people who live in these rural areas suffer from poverty.

In Monrovia, basic necessities are rarely available. Electricity and water resources are scarce and at best unreliable. Both the health care and social services are lacking. The GDP, the health expenditures is ten percent and the amount of health expenditures per capita is eight dollars USD annually. Slums are rampant with disease due to the flooding that has occurred. The streets of Monrovia are filthy, dangerous and unfinished, making it very unsafe to drive on them. The city lacks infrastructure and public transportation despite being the capital city. In Monrovia, the crime index is 82.81 and has a safety index of 17.19. Over the last three years, the crime rate has increased in the city.

Liberia is a country that is the home of many precious gem and diamond mines. Violent acts and war crimes are ongoing for power struggles over their control. This has left the city war-torn and vulnerable as a result of the exploitation of no true supply chain. The resource-rich country suffers from the pandemic of poverty and hunger. Monrovia is a city that depicts global poverty’s existence even in a naturally wealthy country.

– Erika Wright

Sources: AllAfrica, Nations Encyclopedia, NUMBEO, Rural Poverty Portal, The Richest, WHO
Photo: Flickr

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World Vision: Let’s Make the World Hunger Free

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World Vision has launched a new initiative to raise funds for a hunger free world. Through the #hungerfree movement, people can “double up” the cost of their meal and donate the money to fight global hunger.

Presently, more than 795 million people are food insecure, usually as a product of poverty. Food insecurity can mean not knowing where one’s next meal is coming from, not having access to foods with necessary nutrients or not being able to intake enough calories to maintain health.

For individuals facing food insecurity, it affects all aspect of daily life. Food insecurity affects the ability to focus in a school or workplace environment, have healthy physical and neural development and functioning. For mothers, pregnant women and children, these effects are compounded.

Fighting food insecurity and world hunger is a critical component to fighting global poverty. By ensuring people have enough to eat, they can have more energy and ability to be healthy, productive individuals, citizens and communities.

The mid-September launch of #hungerfree by World Vision is timed well for World Food Day 2015 on October 16. The #hungerfree program targets people in Kenya and South Sudan, countries whose food production is dependent on subsistence farming.

Furthermore, the prevalence of hunger in Kenya and South Sudan is also exacerbated by the disproportionate amount of unemployed young people, who are often displaced by conflict and/or climatic shocks.

The #hungerfree initiative works to promote agricultural development in order to implement technologies and provide support to increase food production. By promoting sustainable, long-term development, World Vision hopes to reduce the amount of food aid sent to combat hunger in Kenya and South Sudan and create circumstances that empower communities.

To support #hungerfree, all individuals and groups have to do is “double up” the cost of their meal. The extra funds would be donated to #hungerfree. So, if a meal costs $10, an individual would match the cost of their meal as a donation to World Vision.

The program runs until World Food Day 2015 on October 16. #hungerfree is being run through a partnership between World Vision and the Misfit Foundation, which works to promote donor participation via social media and technology. Currently, World Vision sends aid to 8 million people in 35 different countries annually.

– Priscilla McCelvey

Sources: Hunger Free, World Vision
Photo:  World Vision

 

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6 Reasons Breadfruit Can Solve World Hunger

Breadfruit Could Solve World Hunger
What is breadfruit? Although it sounds fictitious, it is actually a real food with the potential to contribute to the eradication of world hunger.

Breadfruit is shaped like a football and has a prickly texture. The fruit grows on trees and is highly nutritious. It is not well known because many people find it bland and tasteless.

However, there are 6 reasons why food critics should stop turning up their noses at this fruit and they all pertain to helping starving people.

  1. Breadfruit is native to the Pacific Islands and grows best in sunny and humid climates. About 80 percent of the world’s hungry live in tropical and subtropical regions. Because these regions are best for these trees, the fruit has the potential to feed thousands of hungry people.
  2. Breadfruit trees grow easily and begin to bear fruit within three to five years. They are not high maintenance and continue to produce fruit for decades. On average, larger trees can produce between 400-600 fruits while smaller trees can produce approximately 100 fruits.
  3. Breadfruit is nutritious. It is high in fiber, carbohydrates, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, thiamine, and niacin.
  4. Breadfruit can be prepared in a variety of ways including fried, frozen, fermented, pickled, boiled, baked, and roasted. It can also be ground into flour.
  5. Currently, there are pilot projects working to distribute the fruit to places in need such as Honduras and the Caribbean. The Breadfruit Institute in Hawaii is a member of the Alliance to End Hunger. With their hard work and the work of other organizations such as Trees That Feed Foundation, breadfruit has fed people in Jamaica, Kenya, and Haiti.
  6. There are many fans advocating for the fruit. Olelo pa’a Faith Ogawa, a private chef says, “I feel it’s the food of the future. If I were to speak to the breadfruit spirit, it would tell me: ‘Grow me! Eat me! It can feed villages!’”

– Kelsey Parrotte

Sources: Business Insider, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post

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Bangladesh Nonprofit Wins World Food Prize

Bangladesh_Nonprofit
In early November of 1970 a category-3 tropical cyclone made landfall over what was then called Eastern Pakistan. It was the single deadliest tropical storm in human history with a death toll reaching over 500,000. The next year, in 1971, the region would fight a war to form the independent nation of Bangladesh.

Due to so much devastation in so little time, Bangladesh would go on to become the second poorest country on the planet. That’s where one man, Fazle Hasan Abed, felt something had to be done.

Abed formed BRAC, or the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, in the early 1970s as a temporary organization dedicated to providing aid to individuals and their families who were affected by the catastrophes. But after providing immediate relief Abed realized the need for round the clock, global aid.

Since its creation, the Bangladesh nonprofit has evolved into one of the largest organizations fighting to end global poverty and hunger. As a result, Abed was announced as the recipient of the 2015 World Food Prize on September 2 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Estimates on the scope of BRAC’s now 40-year impact show that the organization has helped nearly 150 million people across Africa and Asia. The organization has plans to expand its reach into 10 additional countries.

The World Food Prize was created in 1986 to recognize individuals who contribute to the production, innovation and availability of global food supplies. The prize is a donation of $250,000. The award ceremony will take place in October.

Initially, Abed and BRAC worked to combat the incredibly high childhood mortality rates in Bangladesh before seeing the need to combat poverty on an even grander scale. In 2010, Abed was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts to empower women through STEAM and agricultural education.

Most recently, BRAC has begun a self-sufficiency and financial training program in 9 different countries. The program gives participants a weekly stipend to discourage begging and menial labor.

A bank account is set up in their name so as to teach financial and practical skills. Participants may also receive a grant to buy a computer, a cow, or a chicken coop to begin their own business.

On the program Abed said, “In many countries, poor people are not seen as a solution to the problem but the problem. Poor people can be organized and become the solution to the poverty themselves…All we need to do is provide them opportunities and conditions and give them the tools.”

Sir Abed, who recently celebrated his 79th birthday, now has yet another trophy to add to his collection that shows his undying desire to end global poverty, suffering and hunger.

– Joe Kitaj

Sources: Fortune, Huffington Post, BRAC, Word Food Prize
Photo: Globalhand

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Eva Longoria and LG Raise Money For No Kid Hungry

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Last week, Eva Longoria hosted an LG Electronics USA product launch in Hollywood for the company’s new ranges with ProBake Convection technology to benefit the No Kid Hungry Campaign.

A-list celebrities and VIP guests like actress Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, chef Angel Estrada and actor Jesse Metcalfe, gathered for a family oriented event sponsored by LG. The occasion featured cooking activities and games, as well as interactive culinary demonstrations highlighting the new cooking technology.

The fun-filled afternoon also served to raise awareness and support for the No Kid Hungry campaign that is sponsored by Share Our Strength, an organization that helps to provide food for children and families in need. Fittingly, the charity also empowers families to cook healthy meals together.

The Desperate Housewives star said that she really values the importance of family and passing down recipes to loved ones.

“I come from a tight-knit family where we value the importance of gathering for meals and celebrations, and I’m thrilled to join LG to encourage families to do the same, all while benefitting such a fantastic cause,” Longoria said.

Longoria supports a worthy cause — malnutrition is a continuing problem. According to Action Against Hunger, 3.5 million children die each year from malnutrition.

To help eradicate this problem, the No Kid Hungry campaign asks for donations for hungry children and lists ways for people to improve the lives of the impoverished. The campaign’s website focuses on using food as a tool to create a better value of life, stating that “another kid falls behind and never catches up” without proper nourishment.

The campaign also seeks to provide parents the tools to create and offer nutritious meals to their children. Supporting No Kid Hungry, LG encouraged the community to start their own “PostBake sales” in their neighborhoods using kits gifted by the event to all attendees.

Longoria hosted her own bake sale at the LG event. The award-winning cookbook author and co-restaurateur shared her cooking expertise during her live demonstrations. Her culinary creations were all recipes from her New York Times bestselling cookbook, “Eva’s Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends.”

In addition, she helped organize pizza and flatbread baking, cake and cookie decorating, a themed photo booth and more.

Since the event, LG and Longoria have helped connect struggling kids with more than 345 million meals. The benefit also helped to launch school breakfast programs, recruit summer meals sites, and helped to provide grants to the most effective hunger-fighting organizations to help end child hunger in their communities, according to the No Kid Hungry website.

Not only is the campaign feeding kids, but it is also making their dreams come true.
Straight-A students and sisters, Jeane and Jahnique love to run, dance and cheerlead, and with the help of No Kid Hungry, they are able to do these activities with more energy.

“When I eat, it makes me run faster,” one sister said.

No Kid Hungry has helped many more kids in different areas. The operation’s website shows several more stories like this one. To read these stories and to learn how to support these kids, visit the No Kid Hungry website.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: Action Against Hunger, Look to the Stars, No Kid Hungry 1, No Kid Hungry 2, Vimeo
Photo: Homemade Mimi

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New Zealand Gang Feeds Children

new_zealandThe Tribal Huk gang of Ngaruawahia, in New Zealand, has been working for the last four years to help feed the country’s poor children. Every day, the gang has been making and delivering sandwiches to thirty-one schools in the area and putting food in more than four hundred hungry children’s mouths.

Jamie Pink, the president of the organization, called Kai 4 the Future, knows what it is like to grow up in poverty. As a child, he barely ever had enough food for himself. When he grew to be an adult, he knew he wanted to do something about it. Although he does admit he likes violence, he says he liked helping people even more.

Now, Tribal Huk leases fifty acres of farmland around Horotiu and Ngaruawahia, and owns dozens of beef, sheep and pigs. Some animals are sold to finance the foundation while the rest go in the sandwiches.

In New Zealand, 270,000 children live below the poverty line, according to the country’s Children’s Commissioner. Although the government has implemented a $9.5 million program in the last couple of years to help solve the problem, children remain hungry.

Pink laments that New Zealand has enough water, food and other resources- sheep even outnumber people ten to one- to support their population, but children are still going hungry. He hopes to get government assistance so the gang can make even more sandwiches every day.

He is also hoping to start a new trust in which people donate just $5 a week to the Foundation. If 50,000 people pay this amount for a year, they would collect $30 million – enough to feed every hungry child in the country.

– Radhika Singh

Sources: Stuff, RadioNZ
Photo: Stuff