When 1 in 7 people are hungry in the world...
"If you can not feed a hundred people, then feed just one" - Mother Teresa
Sitting in my comfy home, being choosy with my food, wasting some of it by eating when I do not really need to or by dumping some in trash, I never thought of hunger.
Hunger is something I read about in books. I did not consciously think of hunger as a problem that is threatening humanity on a large scale.
I am happy sitting in my ivory tower and caring about wild animals while a huge number of people go to bed hungry today...
I feel like a complete hypocrite. I am usually very cheerful and bubbly. I have a positive approach when it comes to contributing something to the society. I do not believe in charity through some faceless organization. My wife and I like to support families where we know our support is needed. However, this problem I am talking about needs the message to be spread all across. One or two people doing things here and there will not solve this problem. Hence this effort in this post - just to spread the message first.
When I saw this bird sitting on a corn of grain, as if it was counting the grains, my mind suddenly veered towards the food availability in the world. I took this nice picture with my Nikon P900 and started wondering about the sufficiency of food in the world.
I took a look at some of the world hunger stats, like the report here and the statistics is just appalling:
The problem of World Hunger
795 Million people do not have sufficient food to sustain good nourishment for their bodies
One Seventh of the world population go to bed hungry every night!
3.1 children every year (nearly 45% of children under 5 years of age) die of malnutrition every year
Image source
After reading this, I am almost ashamed to eat a full meal. I have seen many people leave food on the plate and perhaps the food they waste in a year is good enough to feed another person for at least a few months.
Luckily, my wife is very particular about not wasting food. She has trained everyone in our household to take only sufficient helpings and not waste food. So, while we are doing our small bit, I still feel helpless about the overall situation.
People merrily continue to waste tons of food every where - especially in social gatherings and business conferences - all over the world.
Image source
We can at least try and help the situation by not allowing any food to go to waste.
The problem is widespread and more acute in some regions
During my travels in Africa and Asia, I have seen impoverished families galore. I however, admit that I had never thought that getting food on plate or having to sleep hungry was an issue. Shows how blinded our own secure financial status and upbringing can make us. I wonder how I would have been so insensitive to these aspects earlier...
The very region I travel in, the problem is actually most acute.
Image source
A few things jump out when we look at this 'world Hunger Map':
Many countries in Africa that are shown red or dark red have over 25 % and over 35% of their population, respectively, under nourished
Many countries in Asia that are shown orange have over 15 % of their population under nourished
What can we do to help
Apart from stopping the criminal food wastage at personal and community level, we can contribute to reputable programs such a the 'Zero Hunger' program rung by the leading international body called World Food Programme.
We could provide for needy families in our own neighborhood. As Mother Teresa said, we can at least try to feed one human being if we can not feed a hundred.
It takes only 0.25 US cents ( Less than a cost of a large candy) to feed a hungry child in one of the hunger affected nations and change the child's life forever. Let us pledge to support - to our own capabilities.
In Conclusion:
Do not feel happy that we are well fed - think of those who go hungry to bed
Steemians, please comment freely to share your experiences, knowledge and views about world hunger problem. Thanks.
Note: All images except for the wildlife photos and the title image created by me are from pixabay.com. Image credit has been specifically mentioned for images not falling under these two categories.
Gif crafted by the Legendary @stellabelle for me based on my Lion Avatar
Thank you for the important subject ..
We must spread the culture of economy in food, water and the whole of our lives
So as to preserve the balance of resources in the world
Awesome thanks for sharing. Personally I believe 99 percent of people are in poverty.
Amazing Post @vm2904 !! Keep it up.. :D
"If you can not feed a hundred people, then feed just one" - Mother Teresa✌️✌️
Good post
the pictures are so much beautiful i really like such nice pictures thanks for sharing on steem
That's a powerful message you have here! Something most of us don't think of, enough. Thanks for this post! :)
great @vm2904
amazing post, your efforts are very high for community.
Woah! God bless you sir for even putting the world into remembrance because as am speaking alot have neglected the needful thing. Yeah you right when we get fed up we dont consider the fact people haven't eaten or have a good diet. But what i have figure out is if the government cant make it a prioty first everyone sees it as 'its not their business too' but we shouldn't wait for the government still in our small way we should contribute our token. And with what you have done, people are seeing it and good deed speaks louder when you got no motive behind it. Thumbs up as you making the world a better place in your own way. 🖒
at home we are the same, we really do make an effort to eat everything we buy and not throw away anything,
I regularly cook things with the leftovers from the days before and it tastes just as good.
All the waste does start at home and if we can manage that we can start to look beyond as well. I have written some posts on recycling and urban homesteading in the past and these we still take to heart
Awesome great way to do life!!
It's very sad that 1 in 7 people are hungry... It's impossible for sure to help everyone but we have to try at least! I really believe in karma and i'm always trying to give some money or food when i see the person who really needs it. We should take care about people and animals who are less lucky than we are.
Thanks for sharing this information with us. Those statistics are really appaling, yet most of us are helpless to help. Still despite that I'm grateful that their are still people like you racing awareness about the issue. I live in the Philippines and I too have seen children who are greatly under nourished. I too give little bit of help from time to time, but just like you a single person can only do much. Hopefully more people will see this post so that they will be aware of the issue. Thanks again. Resteemed.
The time of Africa will come with emerging technology and a willingness on the part of the people of that continent to raise themselves out of poverty.
40 years and Africa will be booming.
once I was in Thailand ,
And I and my wife were a bit drunk and we decided to take Homeless on the street and buy him what he wanted for up to $ 100 :)
You know what he asked for? He asked for a bun with something weird that only Thai people seemed to eat, and it cost us less than $ 10.
We asked him if he did not want anything else and he said no, "I was hungry" he pointed to his stomach.
Yeah man , anything we want at our pleasure , we buy it and are happy with that , when there are a lot of people that suffer hunger and there is not enough food , and sometimes they even have to travel miles to get a bottle of water .
most Russians do not die of hunger, but they save on food
Wow this is a great post and great reflection! And awesome picture! Global maps hide local disparities, wealthy nations also have their hungry and marginalised. It is just important and possibly more effective to work directly around us.
I can only hope that messages like this will reach as many people as possible and change their mindset. Im already following the rule of buying only what I need and eating until the last bit. I'm also being a pain in the ass for my friends when they don't finish their meal... ;)