Famine in West Africa.
In West Africa there are very young kids dying from starvation. Its not just affecting kids ,this food crisis is threatening 23 million people. Almost a third of the population of Britain. The famine in West Africa is the result of another failure of rains and political instability which is affecting the help effort.The lives of more than 18 million people in seven countries in the Sahel region of West Africa are now at risk. Niger is one of the worst affected , nearly 2 million people are starving, or are close to it.
We take what we have for granted, there are kids in Africa that don’t get dinner every night like you do , and don’t have cabinets and refrigerators filled with food . No telephones , no computers , no internet , no nothing . They even have very limited water. All you have to do is go to your sink and turn it on and , you get a drink . They wish they had it that easy.
You might ask , what is the impact on children ? Older children who are hungry find it hard to concentrate on lessons, or they may drop out of school completely. Schooling is further disrupted when girls seek work in the cities to support their families. Children, especially those under 5, are more vulnerable to malnutrition than adults and are the first to die from starvation . More than 1 million children are at risk of severe malnutrition .
So , what exactly is the problem ? In recent years, recurring droughts have led to poor harvests. Crop yields have been non-existent in some areas and severely reduced in others.The gap between the previous food crisis and the current crisis is barely 2 years. Affected populations have exhausted their traditional means of coping with these kinds of emergencies.
We take what we have for granted, there are kids in Africa that don’t get dinner every night like you do , and don’t have cabinets and refrigerators filled with food . No telephones , no computers , no internet , no nothing . They even have very limited water. All you have to do is go to your sink and turn it on and , you get a drink . They wish they had it that easy.
You might ask , what is the impact on children ? Older children who are hungry find it hard to concentrate on lessons, or they may drop out of school completely. Schooling is further disrupted when girls seek work in the cities to support their families. Children, especially those under 5, are more vulnerable to malnutrition than adults and are the first to die from starvation . More than 1 million children are at risk of severe malnutrition .
So , what exactly is the problem ? In recent years, recurring droughts have led to poor harvests. Crop yields have been non-existent in some areas and severely reduced in others.The gap between the previous food crisis and the current crisis is barely 2 years. Affected populations have exhausted their traditional means of coping with these kinds of emergencies.