Do you ever get too full after eating food and dispose of all the left over’s? Do you ever buy so much groceries that end up getting expired and then must throw them away? Have you ever thought of the seven hundred ninety-five million people who are currently starving around the world? These people might have been able to eat these foods that sometimes we are not grateful for. We don’t realize how there are so many people who are mal nourished and need food. There are so many programs that help these people in need but there are many countries that don’t have that help. World hunger in Afghanistan is due to many reasons; war, civil unrest, and recurring natural disasters. “Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries ranking 169 out of 187 counties in development index” Since Afghanistan is a war zone there are not many resources to help and stop hunger and starvation. About 2.5 million people suffer from hunger in just Afghanistan. Because of the drought in some areas in Afghanistan they’re not able to grow their own crops causing them to not have any source of food. This leads to mal nutrition and even death. Do you feel a little remorse now after knowing how many families suffer from not only hunger but fearing for their lives because of other things going on in their country?
I was always taught to serve myself what I can eat and don’t waste the food. There are many people who were never taught about others being in bad stages and that is why sometimes they become what we call “brats” or simply unappreciated people. There are tons of programs that do help and fight world hunger but if you sit and think the real reason of world hunger is mainly caused by natural disasters, such as floods, storms and even long periods of drought area; are at higher risk of food shortage. Poverty is also one of the main causes of world hunger. It really must feel terrible to have a whole family you can’t feed because of any of these reasons. I believe someone who suffers from hunger has to be really strong; acknowledge and accept the fact they will only have 1 meal a day or maybe just even water.
Yet, there are many countries that also don’t have that resource of having clean water and they are exposed to more bad microorganisms. These people lack safe housing, clean water, and health care. They cannot afford to buy or get food to maintain good health. This usually causes them to get sick since they have inadequate diets that lead to poor health in adults, and impaired physical, psychological and cognitive development in children. They suffer from food insecurity, meaning that they have limited access to foods of enough quality or quantity to sustain a healthy and active life. Sometimes, the way they seek for food assistance is socially unacceptable, but they really have no choice. For example, they will beg to strangers for food, steal from markets, or even scavenge through garbage cans. Because hunger is so bad, they don’t care if its molded food, slime, leftover meats or even meat from road kill.
Poverty in this country eventually leads to hunger, then inadequate intake of energy, protein, vitamin A and mineral, leading to malnutrition. Having nutrient deficiencies will lead to more serious problems. A child who suffers from nutrient deficiencies will continue to grow but without adequate nourishment. This means that body functions will begin to fail, and signs of deficiency diseases become apart. Some symptoms from nutrient deficiency can be birth defects, learning disabilities, mental retardation, impaired immunity, blindness, unable to work due to lack of energy, and premature deaths. There is a severe malnutrition condition called kwashiorkor and it’s due to protein deficiency. Kwashiorkor is “characterized by failure to grow and develop edema, changes in the pigmentation of hair and skin, fatty liver, anemia and apathy.”(pg 672) Kwashiorkor is mainly noticed by the child’s swollen belly. The most common nutrients to be deficient are iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc. Each year, 7.6 million children, younger than 5 die; s a result to hunger and mal nutrition. They don’t die from starvation but mainly from diarrhea and dehydration. They develop infectious disease that causes diarrhea for example, dysentery and cholera. They will also develop acute respiratory diseases like pneumonia and whopping cough, measles and malaria too. This increases the risk of death in children.
Although Afghanistan doesn’t have the same help as in the United States, there are emergency programs that provide temporary relief during devastation, either caused by a natural disaster or war. Armed conflict is a major cause in Afghanistan, since farmers and regular civilians become warriors, and their agriculture fields become battlegrounds, and because of its citizens go hungry. They no longer can plant their own crops and end up with little sources of food. There are many concerned communities, churches and local agencies who are always trying to help feed the hungry. It will help temporary but there is so many people to feed it runs out very quickly. It is crazy to think there enough food around the world for every single living person in the world; the only problem is the unequal distribution to places, and poor income to purchase foods. A huge impact that will threaten the world’s capacity to produce foods is overpopulation.
` In Afghanistan you mainly see hospitals filled with children less than 5 years old in a very bad case of severe malnutrition. They are the most impacted people since mothers don’t tend to breast feed and instead give powdered milk mixed with steam water since they can’t provide enough nourishment and due to a lot of children in just one family. In 2013, Unicef was able to raise its target for being able to provide therapeutic foods to the acutely malnourished children. Therapeutic foods are made for malnourished children who are not able to digest normal food. Many children often die from severe malnutrition because families cannot get to hospitals due to war going on. It is a constant problem in Afghanistan which they don’t have control over.
Furthermore, there are steps to be taken try ending world hunger. This issue has been going on for a very long time now and the steps they are taking don’t seem to help everyone. It’s very hard to try and alleviate world hunger. Yet, there are those people who complain from being part of the world hunger just because they haven’t ate in a few hours, when there are people who really don’t get there nutrients and suffer from severe hunger and are in very bad pain. The steps that should be taken to help these poor people suffering from hunger are having the government help. The government can help by offering programs to provide more food and safe housing and most importantly more healthcare facilities. Developing countries like Canada United States and the United Kingdom tend to waste lots of food, not considering how many people die to have that food they are throwing to waste and this has to stop.
In conclusion, world hunger is a problem that needs to be taken more serious, and people really need to look into trying to help. There are many causes from world hunger but the main one in this case are poverty, war, climate changes and weak economies. These developed countries should all try to help the people suffering from hunger. Trying to find ways to help will delay everything and people will keep losing their loved ones. People in developing countries cannot help themselves, they need helping hands from the developed countries. People need to be able to contribute financially to organizations that have already been crated to help end world hunger. It’s very sad to think that a meal you make a bad face to be a meal someone suffering hunger anywhere around the world is currently thinking of. A good remedy to help the people suffering from hunger is through compassion.
