Hunger And Poverty

Starvation is one of the world’s biggest social injustices. A person dies every four seconds due to hunger and malnutrition. That translates to about 21,000 people each day (“Hunger and World Poverty”). Of these deaths, the majority of them are children. There are 7.3 billion people in the world (“2015 World Hunger”). Of the total world population, nearly 795 million people across the globe are undernourished; most of them live in developing and very poor countries (“Hunger Facts”). Undernourishment leads to malnutrition. Malnutrition can eventually lead to death. These deaths can be prevented; there is plenty of food to feed our world’s population. For those people trapped in hunger and poverty, help is on the way. Samaritan’s Purse is feeding …show more content…
Malnutrition indicates the absence of a proper diet. Acute malnutrition occurs when the body lacks proper nourishment and is forced to use its own energy reserves. The body begins to breakdown its own tissue to produce energy to survive (“Hunger”). This results in loss of muscle, bone and other tissues. Two types of malnutrition are protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency (“2015 World Hunger”). Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) refers to a shortage of calories and protein. Humans require food with a proper calorie count to maintain constant energy. Protein is essential to build and maintain muscle. A lack of calories and protein will result in the failure to grow. Micronutrient deficiency means essential vitamins and minerals are not consumed. This can lead to anemia and growth obstruction (“2015 World Hunger”). Children are the most vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition. Seventeen million children die from acute malnutrition, worldwide (“Hunger”). One million of them are children under five years old (“Hunger”). Acute malnutrition in children can occur in two forms: Marasmus [muh-raz-muh s] or Kwashiorkor [kwah-shee-awr-kawr] (“Hunger”). Marasmus refers to the significant loss of weight and muscle tissue. Children look elderly and have skeletal bodies. Children with kwashiorkor have swollen faces, arms and legs. Their muscles are severely weak and they have damaged internal organs (“Hunger”). All of these …show more content…
They have established feeding programs that will feed large populations and, also, teach many communities how to harvest their own food to sell and to eat. Samaritan’s Purse provides emergency food following natural disasters and during times of need. Teams travel the globe bringing truckloads of food and supplies to desperate villages. They also provide emergency relief to refugee populations who are escaping wartime conflict. Samaritan’s Purse travels to poverty stricken areas in Kenya to deliver life saving food. (“Food for Survival in Kenya”) Without this blanket-feeding program, people in Kenya would surely die. They have, also, traveled to North Korea to provide food to the oppressed people of the Democratic People’s Republic (“Franklin Graham Reveals Critical Need in North Korea”). To make matters worse, a severe flood destroyed the rice crops. Samaritan’s Purse brought them food and provided plastic to help protect new rice crops (“Franklin Graham Reveals Critical Need in North Korea”). In addition to providing food, Samaritan’s Purse teaches people to provide their own food. This helps them rise out of poverty and support themselves. Two success stories took place in the countries of Cambodia and Niger. In Cambodia, Samaritan’s Purse helped a village build a canal for irrigation. (“Rising out of Poverty”) Without the canal, the local people could not get water to