Fight hunger and walk the world

A programme for children suffering in the developing world :

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson

Every night millions of children go to bed hungry. In poor communities around the world, whether due to drought, conflict or disease, mothers and fathers are unable to find enough food for their families which is the worst nightmare any parent could have.

Fight Hunger, walk the world brought the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners together again in 2006 to launch a unique fund raiser programme to alert the world to facilitate humanitarian needs of children suffering from hunger in the developing world.

The programme was unique and drew much attention as WAP was promoted at sporting events, in cinemas and on television according to James T. Morris, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WAF).

Another unique feature was that celebrities like Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, WAPsGoodwill Ambassador is also said to have taken part in the launch of the annual UN Humanitarian Appeal in New York, seeking US 3.9 billion to help 27 million people in 29 countries in 2007 while marathon world record holder Paul Tegrat, a WAF Ambassador Against Hunger worldwide has also supported a number of the agency's corporate events.

Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, pop artist DJ Bobo, Brazilian soccer stars Kaka and Ronaldino, actors Mahmoud Yassin, Marek Eben, Rachel Weisz and many athletes were the most recent additions to WFPs growing list of celebrity partners.

Even Cricket Against Hunger partnerships were launched and the immense pulling power of the England cricket team is expected to draw attention to the plight of the 400 million chronically hungry children around the world.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the key voice in alerting the world to immediate humanitarian needs of hunger among children in the developing world and raises awareness of the general public, donors, the private sector and opinion makers in order to generate more financial support to carry out their projects. The 14 major donor countries are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK and the USA.

The WFP in collaboration with its partners, UNICEF, (WFPs largest partner) provided food aid as an integral package of assistance to reduce hunger, reduce the impact of hiv/aids and improve education, the FAO which worked closely on food security assessments while the UNHCR and WFP jointly provided assistance for refugees and displaced persons.

In 2006 initiatives included the first joint global work-plan, joint plans for action at country level and a high-level working group to review issues related to Internally Displaced Persons.

Hunger isn't merely uncomfortable for children, it's dangerous and harmful to health and normal development which in turn can impede readiness for school and future productivity as adults. Food insecurity and hunger has its impacts on the child's physical health, mental health, and cognitive development. It has also been found that malnutrition of the foetus affects the kidney, liver, pancreas and skeletal muscle mass of the body which can lead to long-term adverse effects on the child's development psychological studies show.

Studies also show that infants and toddlers in food insecure households are 90 per cent more likely to be reported in poor health. This is a particularly vulnerable group as the first three years of life is a crucial developmental period and the effects may not be immediate.

It has been revealed that children from food insecure and hungry households are more likely to have a history of past or current mental health counselling and hunger may impair a child's psychosocial function and increase the likelihood of behaviourial problems as well as experience more headaches and stomach aches and become more aggressive, irritable, or hyperactive and experience depressive symptoms.

Hence, the burden to reduce hunger among children worldwide is a growing task and WFP is striving hard to alert the world to join hands in making this a reality.

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