The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is coming celebrating World Food Day on October 16 since 1981 as a way of raising public awareness of global food problems and of solidarity with the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
The theme of World Food Day 2012 is "Agricultural cooperatives feed the world" and FAO emphasizes everything these cooperatives can achieve for their communities. On the other hand, organizations such as UNICEF remind the world of the drama of malnutrition, which is one of the causes of almost half of the deaths of children worldwide.
Recall that malnourished children are much more susceptible than those well fed to fatal diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrheal infections, which unfortunately continue to be the order of the day, especially in developing countries.
According to UNICEF data, 10% of children under five in the developing world suffer from acute malnutrition. Most malnourished children could receive effective treatment if the problem is detected quickly and there are means to do so.
The countries that suffer the most from child malnutrition are India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines and Tanzania (from highest to lowest number of cases).
In nine countries of the world, more than 50% of its children population under five children suffer from chronic malnutrition. These countries are: Afghanistan, Yemen, Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Burundi, Madagascar, Malawi, Ethiopia and Rwanda (from highest to lowest percentage).
For these reasons, FAO leads international efforts to To end hunger, with the belief that the Millennium Goal on hunger can still be achieved by 2012, if countries intensify their efforts against malnutrition. Boosting cooperatives would be one of these efforts.
This year the motto has been chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives to improve food security and contribute to the eradication of hunger. The interest in rural cooperatives and organizations is also reflected in the decision of the UN General Assembly to declare 2012 as “International Year of Cooperatives”.
We hope that this and many other efforts necessary to eradicate hunger in the world will come, regardless of crisis, thinking of others, sharing. Until then, World Food Day will still be necessary, because many children go hungry in the world and die for it.
Official Site | FAO In Babies and more | "Experiment shares", children who share on World Food Day, Is what is done by children in the world enough ?, Data on child malnutrition in the world
