Starvation in Africa is a serious matter. Out of all the starving children in the world 26% live in Africa. Over half of Africa’s population are children form the ages 0-19. Sadly this is the portion of the population that is mostly starving.
In the world about 15 million children die each year from starvation. In the general population one in twelve people worldwide suffer from malnutrition. About 800 million people in the world suffer from malnutrition which is 100 times larger than the amount of people that actually die from it every year. That means that more people suffer from malnutrition than any disease in the world by a significant margin. If people keep dying at this rate our population will get tremendously diminished.
There are two basic forms of malnutrition. The worse of the two is protein-energy malnutrition. This is the lacking of enough protein (meat, fish and other sources) and food that contains energy (calories) that all basic food groups provide. This type of malnutrition can lead to marasmus, kwashiorkor, and intermediate states of marasmus-kwashiorkor. Marasmus comes from the Greek word marasmus, meaning withering or wasting. Kwashiorkor comes from the Ga language of Ghana and means “the sickness of the weaning.” This basically means a person has an inadequate intake of protein with reasonable calorie intake.
The second form of malnutrition is micronutrient deficiency. This is the lack of necessary vitamins and minerals your body needs to survive. Most agencies that are trying to help with world hunger don’t consider this second form of malnutrition, but it is an extremely important aspect of starvation that needs to be addressed. (We are addressing this on our site.) Micronutrient deviancy in the incapability to intake or absorb vitamin A, iron, or iodine. This can have serious consequences on one’s mental and physical function. Having the deficiency of vitamin A is hazardous. The result is progressive damage to the eye, eventually leading to blindness. The general term for this is “xerophthalmia,” which covers all areas of blindness.
The end result of lacking in nutrition from one or both of these forms of malnutrition can lead to serious malfunctions in the body systems and cause death. This is a very serious problem that we face. People everywhere are needlessly dying each year. It can be stopped by simply getting them vitamins or donating a small amount of money to relieve their hunger. No child should ever have to go through life dealing with any of these problems. You can help by simply buying a card with a picture of one of the innocent lives you are helping to save. One card buys one bottle of vitamins for these children. Just one card makes a difference.
Works Cited
Pingback: New Starvation Article | Cards for Kenya
This is a horriable thing, im 15 i got to SPMS. I’d love to help out with this. Write back.
Thank You for your interest and support. A way to help out would be to help us spread the word, and obviously buy a card. Feel free to email us at cardsforkenya@gmail.com for more information.