A little bit about Hunger..
1 - Is there food shortage in Nigeria?
There is enough food in Nigeria for everyone to have the nourishment necessary for a healthy and productive life.
2 - What is hunger?
The sensation of hunger, a lack of food in your stomach, is universal. But there are different manifestations of hunger which are each measured in different ways:
- Under-nourishment is used to describe the status of people whose food intake does not include enough calories (energy) to meet minimum physiological needs for an active life. At present, well over 40% of the Nigerian population is undernourished, most of them in rural and riverine areas.
- Malnutrition means 'badly nourished', but is more than a measure of what we eat or fail to eat. Malnutrition is characterised by inadequate intake of protein, energy and micronutrients and by frequent infections and diseases. Starved of the right nutrition, people will die from common infections like measles or diarrhoea.
Malnutrition is measured not by how much food is eaten but by physical measurements of the body - weight or height - and age.
Wasting is an indicator of acute malnutrition that reflects a recent and severe process that has led to substantial weight loss. This is usually the result of starvation and/or disease.
3 - Who are the hungry?
Despite the impression you often get from the media, emergencies account for less than eight percent of hunger's victims. Few people realise that there are over 1 billion hungry people in the world who don't make the headlines - They are of all ages, from babies whose mothers cannot produce enough milk to the elderly with no relatives to care for them. They are the unemployed inhabitants of urban slums, the landless farmers tilling other people's fields, the orphans of AIDS and the sick, who need special or increased food intake to survive.
Above all, poor, elderly folks living in rural communities are on the frontlines of hunger.
4 - Where are the hungry?
The percentage of hungry people is highest in rural and riverine areas. However, the share of the hungry in urban areas is rising.
5 – What can you do?
Help fight hunger by stretching a hand of love to those at risk. By helping one elder at a time, FTEF intends to eradicate hunger from most corners of our nation.
