We can all help the world's hungry

We have all felt the pangs of hunger at one time or another. 

How many times per day on campus do you hear a student (or yourself) saying “I’m starving!” when in reality, we have probably been without food for only a few hours? We use the word “hunger” so casually, never really thinking about its true definition —hunger that is a result of extreme poverty — hunger that leads to malnutrition — hunger that kills.

Every year in developing countries, more than 8 million children under 5 years old die. They die from many different causes, but the underlying cause of a majority of their deaths is extreme poverty and malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization. These are children who have become so weak from malnutrition that they are likely to die if a mosquito bites them. 

Tragically, most of them could have been saved for just a few U.S. cents per child. 

They are dying on our watch. 

They are dying because of our indifference. 

They are dying because we do not view them as we view our own children.

We are literally watching them die right in front of us. We see them on our TVs and our computer screens in documentaries and news stories. We hear the pleas for help from non-profit organizations who are leading the fight against world hunger.

We turn away because we don’t want to see their agony or feel their suffering. We don’t act because we see the hunger crisis as somebody else’s problem—in places that are far removed from us, not only geographically, but also from our daily thoughts and lives. After all, in America, most of us are fortunate to have more than enough food to feed our children. The children we see on TV who are dying from starvation are not our children.

But if a child is dying and we have the ability to save that child, does it matter whose child it is? 

In the time that it will take for you to read this sentence, somewhere in the world a baby will die in his/her mother’s arms because of extreme poverty. Count off a few seconds ... there goes another one. 

Surely those mothers must love their children as much as we love ours. 

Imagine watching your own child die because you could not provide even the most basic food for him/her. Imagine dying yourself, trying to save your children.

Because they are critically malnourished, 115 million children under the age of five are at serious risk of death. 

We can play a huge part in saving those children’s lives. 

We can become proud representatives for the millions of children worldwide who will definitely die without our help. 

We can join our voices together and declare that we will no longer sit back and watch this casual holocaust of the world’s poorest children. Now, our children. 

We can have the incredible honor of being members of the first generation that had it in our power to wipe out world hunger, and did so. 

We can be that generation about which Nelson Mandela spoke so eloquently when he said, “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation.” 

In the time it took for you to read this article, 200 people died from starvation. Please lend your voice and help to feed hungry children everywhere. 

To learn more about how you can help, please visit:

•www.unicefusa.org/

• www.thp.org/

•www.worldhunger.org/reduce.htm

•www.bread.org/hunger/