Category Archives: Global poverty

Children: The Face of Hunger

Posted on October 30, 2018 by | Comments Off on Children: The Face of Hunger

By David Braughton

Introduction

Look into the eyes of someone who is hungry and one out of five times it will be a child under age five staring back at you. The child will probably bear little resemblance to the graphic images found on the internet of a little wizened skull with sunken eyes sitting atop an emaciated body that more resembles a skeleton than a small living being grasping for life. What you will see is an otherwise ordinary kid who appears stunted (too short for its age) and wasted (underweight for its age). Or, you may see a child who is both too short and, at the same time, obese, another seemingly paradoxical symptom of chronic malnutrition.

Stunting and wasting represent two key markers of child malnutrition.  In 2017, there were 151 million children who were abnormally short for their age.  There were also 51 million kids who were seriously underweight for their age and 38 million who were overweight.  What is particularly alarming is the growing number of children who are overweight and stunted, although no reliable statistics are available to determine the true scope of the problem (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank). Continue reading →

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Posted in Education, Food insecurity, Global Hunger, Global poverty, Projects & programs

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Tackling Maternal and Childhood Malnutrition in Cote d’Ivoire

Posted on February 8, 2018 by | Comments Off on Tackling Maternal and Childhood Malnutrition in Cote d’Ivoire

By BGR Staff

The following article is based on the final report for the first year of a three-year project being implemented by Helen Keller International (HKI), a long-time BGR partner. The project, which is being funded in its entirety by BGR, aims to improve nutrition for pregnant women, infants, and children in the Korhogo District of Cote d’Ivoire. Cote d’Ivoire is among the poorest countries in the world, ranking 172nd out of 188 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index. Estimated child mortality under five years is 195 per 1,000 live births and life expectancy is just 54 years. Malnutrition, including vitamin and micro-nutrient deficiencies, is a major contributing factor to the high rate of infant mortality. Chronic malnutrition affects about 33% of children under five. Together, HKI and BGR are doing something to address this problem.

With the support of Buddhist Global Relief, Helen Keller International has launched this project to tackle malnutrition in the Korhogo Health District, located in the Poro Region in the northern part of the country, where child malnutrition is most pronounced. The overall goal of the program is to reduce the incidence of malnutrition among women of childbearing age, expectant and breast-feeding mothers, and children during their first 1,000 days of life. This enables newborns to reach a healthy start in life, decreasing the incidence of stunting and improving children’s cognitive development. Continue reading →

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Posted in Engaged Buddhism, Global Hunger, Global poverty, Projects & programs

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