The Affero Blog

Freedom from Hunger

By Rob Harvey in News

13Sep, 2010

Hunger kills. This year nearly 9 million children younger than 5 will die needlessly, more than half from hunger-related causes. It’s hard to get our heads around numbers like this. Our minds barely grasp it.

Try this. Count to six: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Another child just died from hunger-related causes. That’s right. Every six seconds a little boy or girl somewhere in the world dies because they are under-nourished.

We know that our bodies need food to remain strong and fight off illness. Outright starvation is real. More common, however, are illnesses that move in on vulnerable children whose bodies have been weakened by hunger. What can be done to help these children?

Heroic organizations like Freedom from Hunger concentrate services on the world’s poorest nations where an overwhelming 32% are moderately to severely stunted — seriously below normal height for one’s age.

As I’ve shared in a previous post, we can fight poverty with education and sustainable economic development strategies. Freedom from Hunger brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty. Their able staff have already trained and supported 72 partner organizations in 16 countries to deliver microfinance, education and health-protection services to more than two million women and families in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Doing development successfully is not easy. Microfinance is a powerful self-help support service, providing credit and saving services that are affordable, flexible and reliable. This assists the poor in reducing the uncertainties of cash management and allows them to borrow for needs and opportunities such as starting or growing a small business. Organizations like the Chalmers Center are doing pioneering work, training those with material resources how to help in ways that truly empower, rather than create dependency.

To add further value to microfinance, new approaches to offer women access to healthcare services and medicines are being developed. Practical health education prepares women in their community microfinance meetings to implement better health, nutrition, business and money management in their daily life. Efforts that invest in mothers and their determination to feed their children and protect their health are working. They are saving lives. Affero researches and supports those with proven programs offering training and collaborating with local partners who expand the reach of these life-saving initiatives and ensure that services are delivered effectively and sustainably.

One in every six African children dies before their fifth birthday. Among the causes are diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection and pneumonia. HIV/AIDS and malnutrition contribute to one-half of children’s deaths – and most of these deaths could be prevented. Rigorous studies have documented that those who participate in programs like these shared in this post benefit from value-added microfinance programs and have more money and assets available in the household, a greater sense of personal empowerment to take action in the family and community, better business practices, better health practices, and better-nourished, healthier children.

All mothers want their children to live happy and healthy lives. How will you help them today?

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