Child Malnutrition Affects 1 In 4 Children: Report (What You Can Do)

It's a dire situation for children worldwide.

As food prices rise, nearly half a billion kids face a devastating health toll due to malnutrition, according to a new report released by Save the Children. The effects of the crisis, which include stunted growth and undeveloped brains, affect one in four children worldwide, according to the report.

The report suggests six steps to help tackle the crisis:
--Increasing awareness of malnutrition
--Investing in direct interventions
--Increasing the number of health workers
--Establishing social systems that protect families
--Supporting female and small-scale farmers
--Galvanizing international political leadership

Find ways below to support organizations fighting the crisis of world hunger:

Save The Children
Save The Children works in over 120 different countries, helping marginalized children by providing access to food, education and health care.
Support Save The Children here.

The Red Cross
The international aid organization provides food, water, sustainable agriculture solutions food and supports families in rebuilding their livelihoods.
Support the Red Cross here.

Oxfam
Support Oxfam's new program Grow, which fights for a world in which everyone has enough to eat. The initiative addresses climate change, land use and water use and social issues that affect poverty.
Support Oxfam's Grow here.

World Hunger Relief
The Christian organization trains volunteers to serve through sustainable agriculture. World Hunger Relief accepts donations online and in-kind gifts such as usable equipment, construction materials and farming/gardening tools.
Support World Hunger Relief here.

Feed the Children
The Christian organization provides options for relief including feeding programs, sponsoring a child and volunteering around the world. Support Feed the Children here.

The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has been at the forefront of fighting hunger by addressing poverty on both local levels and in international disaster relief. The organization also provides opportunities for child sponsorship, in which donations will provide a child with food, an education, clothing and medical care.
Support the Salvation Army here.

World Food Programme
Fight world hunger by incorporating it into education, supporting efforts that focus on women and children and playing interactive games that raise money.
Support World Food Programme here.

UNICEF
The United Nations Children's Fund works to protect children from violence, poverty and exploitation and gives them opportunities for education and advancement. The organization also steps up in emergency situations and disaster relief to ensure children are not left malnourished.
Support UNICEF here.

International Rescue Committee
The IRC responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, bringing relief and health care to the most devastated of places. Its focus on children in these areas is holistic, and includes education, reconnection with family members, life skills, and the reintegration of child soldiers.
Support IRC here.

Comments

[Kenz300]

06:34 PM on 02/18/2012

We could not solve the worlds problems of hunger, poverty and despair when the world had 5 billion people and adequate resources. We will not be able to solve the problems in a world of 9 billion people and limited resources. Every country needs to balance energy, resources, jobs and population or their people with suffer. This endless population growth only leads to more poverty, suffering and despair.

[Polloflife]

05:14 PM on 02/16/2012

This issue is beyond a crisis. I really helps me to put my hope in what's found there at Psalm 72:16. It says:"There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth.On the top of the mountains there will be an overflow." Although some try to help there will not always be others that stunt that help by their greed.

[psandysdad]

11:45 AM on 02/16/2012

Maybe we can send them chicken nuggets. But no home-made turkey sandwiches.

[landrights4all]

11:34 PM on 02/15/2012

Glad to see land access strongly recognised in the Save the Children report, although its significance was not identified in this HP piece on Malnutrition.

I would recommend a read of the report, but must also express sadness that the only land access being upheld is for commercial farming. Surely it should be clear from our own first world experience that in a competitive market place a reducing number of individuals can be commercially successful and individuals will soon enough be swallowed up by bigger business.

The importance of land access should not be promoted as primarily, let alone exclusively about commercial enterprise.

The whole emphasis on commercial enterprise promoted by the report, is out of balance and that imbalance is at the root of malnutrition and much else that creates poverty for some and riches for others. Secure land access (as distinct from ownership or renting) is a human right, like access to air and water. Land access is first and foremost fundamentally about home gardening and secure housing. It is common to forget that land is a gift of nature to all, perhaps because we who are successful have so much invested in the system of ownership, preferring for this reason to deal with the casualties in this system as failures deserving of our "charity" and our carefully prescribed welfare. It's time for a rethink about how we do business - www.ntw.110mb.com

@landrights4all

[rinpochet]

12:58 PM on 02/15/2012

BTW, why was this taken off the front page? It IS front page news!

[rinpochet]

12:57 PM on 02/15/2012

How about dealing with the cause; speculation on agriculture commodities? Put a stop to that and you bring down food prices. Wonder if there is any limit to human financial greed?