I have been working in the in the school system for three
years now and I noticed a lot of things about the children I work with. The one
thing that has stood out was hunger. I have seen children come to school and
the only they are focused on is what time is lunch. They can’t pay attention in
class because the stomachs ache from being hungry. The children being to show
less interest in their work, grades begin to drop and they focus more when they
are getting their next meal. Most of the time they don’t have a chance to get
to eat breakfast because they were late from school. So we kept crackers in the
room so they can eat but that isn’t enough to fill their stomachs.
Not only are we seeing child hunger in the U.S. but it is
also going on all over the world. I chose to research the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Central
Africa. The population of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo is 66 million. The global hunger index is extremely
alarming. The malnutrition of children under five years old in the D.R. Congo
is 28.2% in 2007 (Action against Hunger).
As of 2011 the DRC stood at the bottom of major indices of well being.
About 70% of the residence lack access to food and one in four children are
malnourished (World food Programme). Since the beginning of 2012, the DRC has
been plagued by a wave of violence and a dramatic increase of internally
displaced people in five of their eastern provinces (World Food Programme).
A group that is trying to help this situation is Action
against Hunger. Action against hunger is a nonprofit and global humanitarian
organization committed to ending word hunger. It works to save the lives of
malnourished children while providing communities with access clean water and
sustainable solutions to hunger (Action against hunger). This is an organization
that people should get involved in. We should also get our children involved so
they can also help. If we can’t help the children the DRC we can help feed the
children here at home.
References:
www.actionagainsthunger.org/countries/Africa/democratic-republic-congo
It is crazy to me that in this day and age and the country that we live in that child hunger still exists. I see it everyday as well as I work in the inner city of Baltimore, where the head start program feeds the children three times a day. Does your job offer any type of program to help kids who haven't eaten?
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