World Hunger Statistics

The shocking facts behind world hunger.....

• 15 million children die each year from hunger
• 33% of the world is considered to be starving
• There are 3.6 seconds between deaths of people who die from hunger
• 800 million people in the world struggle with starvation and malnutrition
• 936 million people do no have enough to eat
• 98% of people living in developing countries do not have enough to eat
• 20,864 people die from hunger each day
• 11% of U.S. households are at risk of hunger

Although many readers find these statistics to be sad and depressing I chose this set of data because hunger is a worldly issue that many people die from and these statistics show how many deaths happen each year and each day and that more people should be aware.  I found this data on a statistics website that is used across the world to show readers statistics about everything, so I believe this source is very reliable because people rely on it across the world for statistics, financials, numbers and rankings  and it is a very well known website. This data is complete because the statistics are up to date and it gives an overall outlook of the cause and effects of world hunger.

Many insights are gained based off of this data. The cause of the 15 million children dying is probably due to the fact that many families are living in poverty and have many children per household. In my book the author talks about interviewing a family that lives in Mt. Kilamanjaro and the mom has 15 children but cannot afford food for any of them and many of them have died.  800 million people are struggling with starvation because of the lack of income per family and therefor a plethora of  kids are not able to receive meals every day and neither are the parents.

This set of data helps the reader understand the global issue of world hunger.  Since each statistic is so shocking it makes the reader want to know why the numbers are so large so they research it more and realize that this starvation is a problem that needs to be more well known.  Readers can learn about how many deaths are actually caused just from starvation.  This data will enhance their understanding of the topic.

One thing I would like to see different about this data is to show how many children are starving that have single mother or who are homeless or have two parents.  This would show more information about the income situation and the reader could receive a better insight.

Citation "World Hunger Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-hunger-statistics/>

Thoughts behind under nourished children

 Peter Kimeu a small-scale farmer in machos, Kenya and writer for the New York Times wrote an article on his personal experience growing up in a hungry childhood. The droughts were so bad in Kenya that even if someone had a lot of money they did not have any food to purchase.  No food was being grown and so the children weren't being fed.
Kimeu, Peter. "Remembering a Hungry Childhood." New York Times [New York City] 10 Sept. 2011: n. pag. Print.
" I can't count the number of days when "I slept like that" or describe the feeling of going to sleep hungry knowing I'd wake up and there would still be no food for breakfast.  The author helped the readers answer their questions on why child hunger is happening.  Most people think that it is from the lack of money and poverty but Kimeu has a different story.  The droughts are "cyclical" in Kenya. "I would walk the roads and search the ground to see if someone had spat out a bit of chewed-up sugar cane." The children would jostle each other for the last scrap. Many parents of starving children lose their jobs and can't afford food and it affects the whole community. This article was about how many people think that children are starving from being neglected or parent are financially hurting but this gives another point of view of how children are starving from a drought. 
The Rev. Sarai Schnucker Rice and Kristine Frakes who are both writers for the DesMoines paper shard their opinions and beliefs on how there are lasting effects on childhood hunger.  The article describes how if kids don't receive the proper nutrition of food at a young age it can affect the neurological architecture of your brain and central nervous system and it will be fundamentally and negatively altered.
Schnucker Rice, Sarai, and Kristine Frakes. "Iowa View: There Are Lasting Effects from Childhood Hunger." DesMoinesRegister.com. N.p., 27 Oct. 2012. Web. <http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121028/OPINION01/310280038/Iowa-View-There-lasting-effects-from-childhood-hunger>.

These two authors talk about how being undernourished can affect the community in the future.  "As you mature into adulthood, you will not be well-prepared mentally, emotionally, physically or socially to perform in contemporary work environments".  They also share their thoughts about how the government's assistance is not enough, and for the low-income families there just simply isn't enough food.  Eventually there is not enough to stay in school long enough to learn their rudimentary skills and become productive adults.  
The message they are trying to get through is that the world has to do something different and create a new solution so that they can ensure a more promising foundation for the children and future of the community.
So what?
These two articles explain the suffering that the lack of food causes.  Since the first article broke down to a certain cause of starvation it can impact the world and how they want to make a difference because of the knowledge they received.  The second article shows the over all result of child malnourishment and since it is more relatable, it impacts the readers more to make a difference for the better of their community.

Malnutrition in southern Afghanistan

The title of the article I picked was Prevalence of malnutrition in southern Afghanistan 'shocking' and was written by Emma Graham-Harrison.  I know that this author wrote this article in Kandahar, Afghanistan for a UN-backed report which means she got an inside look on the malnutrition of children.  She got first hand experience which helped influence her point of view, because seeing the distraught children badgering their parents for food makes the author see her very own lifestyle from a different view and probably wrote differently.  I think Graham-Harrison put more emotions into her writing because she saw how families struggled to survive.   If she didn't have that first hand experience, her writing would be more factual because it would have been hard to in cooperate other views and feelings of people living in Kandahar when she hasn't been there.

The writing overall is very factual so I think it is for all types of audiences but mostly for those that want to become more educated on child hunger.  For example the entire article starts out with "Around a third of young children in southern Afghanistan are acutely malnourished, with a level of deprivation similar to that found in famine zones...".  By starting out with a fact it engages the readers who are interested in knowing more about the topic and that is why I think it is intended for people hoping to learn more about child malnutrition.

There was a plethora of key points in the article but I managed to break it down.  One key point is that Afghanistan is not using the money the receive wisely and many children are starving and are in poverty.  This point was made by introducing it in the first paragraph "Around a third of young children in southern Afghanistan are acutely malnourished, with a level of deprivation similar to that found in famine zones, a government survey has found, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that has been poured into the region." and then she goes pack to that point later on in the article to give more detail.  Another key point was that women are being told being told its not good enough so they are giving their children tea and water.  Others do not have enough breast milk for their children to grow on.  "I was feeding him breast milk but I couldn't provide enough, and could not could not afford the formula".  This point was made by using repetition throughout the article of different women and their stories.  The author used Ethos because it showed emotion and women across the world could relate.

I think the article was very effective on making the authors point for the intended audience.  This article wasn't only facts but it had real quotes from people suffering from malnutrition.  The audience wants to know more about why they are starving and this article does a great job explaining its points.

Questions I still have:
Where does the money from other countries go?
How do women afford tea and water but not milk formula?