World Hunger

Hunger and malnourishment kill 25,000 children every day. This slow onset and silent catastrophe has seemed to disappear from TV and been replaced by other news. However, hunger never ceases and is taking lives in various forms: food crises, diseases, natural disasters, conflicts, and so on. Lives, who have not had a chance to know this world, have vanished!

Facts of struggling lives

• The Asian tsunami in 2004 killed 200,000 people and shook the whole world! However, few of us know that 25,000 children die of hunger and malnourishment every day. In only 8 days more lives would be lost to hunger than killed in the tsunami.
• There are 850 million people suffering from hunger in the world, nearly 37 times the population in Taiwan.
• More than 60 million people have been infected with HIV (2.5 times Taiwan’s population), and 25 million have died of AIDS since the virus was first found 26 years ago. Some 6,000 children lose a parent to AIDS every day. These orphans are less likely to be educated than other children, more likely to be malnourished, and more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
• Global climate change, floods, and earthquakes have been devastating different parts of the world and displaced millions of people and claimed numerous lives.

Food crises, natural disasters, conflicts, and diseases all result in hunger. World Vision has been committed to the fight against hunger for many years. In 2008 World Vision Taiwan supports humanitarian relief projects in 27 countries including North Korea, Niger, Kenya, Uganda, Southern Sudan, DR Congo, Angola, Swaziland, Laos, India, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Somalia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Bolivia, Mozambique, China, and Gaza Israel, as well as families facing emergencies in Taiwan.

Key Issues of the 19th 30 Hour Famine

Hunger takes different forms and is killing children in different contexts of the world...

Natural disaster
The number of natural disasters like droughts, typhoons, hurricanes, and floods has risen dramatically because of climate change, and droughts are one of the primary causes of hunger. At present nearly 20 million people are in dire need of food due to a long lasting drought in African countries, such as Zimbabwe, Angola, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Kenya. Even a greater number of children are dying of malnourishment and sickness. On the other hand, typhoons, hurricanes, and floods displaced millions of people and caused food shortage in Dominican Republic, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Philippines in 2007. Also in North Korea, lands have become barren due to natural disasters, and numerous children’s lives are threatened by serious starvation.
Armed conflict
Since 1992, food shortage caused by wars and armed conflicts has accounted for 35% of all food crises. For example, the civil war of Sudan in 2004 has destroyed massive scale of farms and forced 2 million people to flee to the neighboring Chad. Without food and water, a great number of refugees died under extreme weathers. In conflict situations children usually are direct victims - they die, become injured, orphaned, kidnapped, sexually abused, traumatized, or hurt by landmines. In addition, they are denied of their rights to education and healthcare. Since 1990 wars have caused 3.6 million deaths, of which 45% were children. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of children have been recruited into armed groups. Even more have become refugees, vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse, unexploded ordinance, etc. Over the last ten years, 80% of people killed in wars were women and children.
Disease
In many countries, one of every six children does not survive the fifth birthday due to a lack of medical resources and adequate sanitation.
About 500 million children do not have adequate sanitation, 400 million do not have clean water, and 270 million have no basic healthcare worldwide. For example, Sierra Leone has the highest child mortality rate in the world, with almost one third of children dying before the age of five, mainly caused by preventable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea.
In many African countries HIV and AIDS has eliminated an entire generation of parents over the past two decades. Some 6,000 children lose a parent to AIDS every day. Since the productive generation is missing, these countries’ economies have collapsed. In Zimbabwe, for example, HIV and AIDS has cut down the labor force, leaving many elderly people and young orphans behind, and the production of maize has declined by 60%.
Emergencies
Incessant typhoons, floods, and mudflows have devastated our beloved home Taiwan in the past few years. We have seen a widening gap between rich and poor and a rising unemployment rate among the disadvantaged and poorly educated. Many families, hit by emergencies, have lost their main breadwinners and capacity to cope with the accidents. All these problems have become nightmares for many families in Taiwan.

World Vision Taiwan appeals for NT$150 million to meet the enormous needs. Sign up for the 19th 30 Hour Famine and donate now in support of:

• Overseas emergency relief: NT$85 million to cover food aid, medical assistance, HIV and AIDS prevention and care, post-war rehabilitation, and emergency relief and settlement in 17 countries including North Korea, Niger, Kenya, Uganda, Southern Sudan, DR Congo, Angola, Swaziland, Laos, India, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Mongolia.

• Domestic emergency relief: NT$65 million to cover post-disaster rehabilitation, medical subsidiaries, and emergency aid to disaster-stricken families in Taiwan.

You can help the hungry, poor, scared, and desperate people by giving hopes. Sign up for the 19th 30 Hour Famine NOW!