HUNGER

When people see the word ‘hunger’ they more often than not turn away or skip to the next page. “It doesn’t involve me, I’m not hungry”. But before you do ask yourself the question - How do you define ‘hunger’? Is ‘hunger’ that time between an early luncheon and a late dinner when you need a bit of a top up? In the west people say “I’m hungry let’s go for a meal whilst we have time...” So is this ‘hunger’?

The dictionary tells us:

- It is a feeling of emptiness, a desire or a craving

- You feel as if you want to eat some food

- A painful sensation resulting in a state of weakness

All of these are true of hunger, but hunger in the developing world is much more than this.

According to the last figures from the United Nations millennium goals, 1 in 7 people in the world do not have enough food to eat; 20% of these are actually in the developed world. 1 in 3 children in the world suffer from hunger and 25,000 people die every day of hunger related causes - that equates to one every 3.5 seconds. Hungry people are usually trapped in poverty.

They lack the money to buy food, which leads to them becoming weak and less able to work. Hunger leads to malnutrition and malnutrition in turn leads to starvation, which can lead to death. The greatest sin of planet earth is that we can currently produce enough food but the poorest cannot afford to buy it and the rich waste too much. There is an unequal distribution of income and this is exacerbated by the world economic crisis, climate change and increases in world food prices.

So what does hunger feel like?

As the amount of food intake decreases the sense of hunger increases, this is accompanied by pain. But after 2 or 3 days this becomes just pain followed by lethargy, weakness and faintness. Over a prolonged period of time digestion becomes difficult, heart rate can increase and circulation becomes feeble, which often leads to oedema like swellings around the ankles. Respiration becomes shallow, the skin loses its elasticity and colour and anemia sets in. Apart from the obvious hunger for food, people who are really hungry often have other hunger problems; there is hunger of the soul.

There is helplessness and there are often practical and tragic reasons for this. Friends, relatives, the nearest and dearest may have already died of hunger and disease or be in the same weakened position. This helplessness drives their despair often through knowing that they too are treading the same path. People in developing worlds can be given food, but to teach them to produce food by teaching them the practical skills of production and providing them with a water resource, will in the long run be the most helpful way of alleviating the sufferings of hunger.

This will give them a sense of pride, a sense of contributing to families and friends, reduce the helplessness, increasing the knowledge and above all increase their food intake and nutritional wellbeing. As we read this article over a coffee and share it with our friends, ponder the fact there are ‘the haves and the have not’s’ and we all know where we sit in this statement.

This is the European Year of the Volunteer and a full ten years since the UN announced the Year of the Volunteer. What has happened since then? The answer is a great deal, but as individuals we can still do more. We need to ask ourselves, ‘how long must these people wait for the world to be different?' And 'what can I do to change the way the world eats forever?'

Jennifer Atigolo, ACWW’s Countrywoman Editor/P&P Communications Manager