Hunger

By Ann Birch, World Vision

We visited the center on June 1. This was the third session [third week] of a CMAM intervention run by World Vision Niger. By the end of the day 12 new cases of severely acute malnutrition had been identified bringing the total of cases identified to 53 so far at a health center in Koma Bangou. Last year – 2009 - the same center identified a total of just 22 cases for the entire year.

14 month old Lamyne Harouna is feed a Ready to Use Therapeutic Food [Plumpy Nut] by his mother – 20 year old Hussaina Harouna –at a health centre in Koma Bangou ADP. Lamyne was found to be severely acutely malnourished. He was extremely weak and tired. He did however, pass the appetite test which offers hope for his recover.

Hussaina Harouna walks back to her village in Koma Bangou with her 14 month old son – Lamyne – on her back. Hussaina is carrying a supply of Plumy Nut [RUTF] which she has received to feed her severely acutely malnourished child. Koma Bangou is a mining area; which is has extreme weather conditions. Hundreds of families flock to the area in search of gold in what is essentially a non productive mine. They live in extreme poverty.

Just hearing the word “budget” puts some people to sleep. But a seemingly insignificant part of the U.S. Federal Budget makes a world of difference to millions of children and families around the world: the International Affairs Budget.

Just one percent

Did you know that the International Affairs Budget makes up just a little more than one percent of the U.S. Federal Budget? This one percent funds humanitarian, economic, and diplomatic initiatives… from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to U.S. State Department activities to many other international efforts that promote global stability and poverty reduction.

There are few parts of the U.S. Federal Budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved. Just a few of the challenges addressed through this budget include:
• global hunger
• AIDS
• malaria
• illiteracy
• disaster response
• peacebuilding
• human and religious rights protection

Did you know that the International Affairs Budget (which is just 1.4 percent of the total federal budget) provides critical, life-saving assistance to combat extreme poverty, hunger, child mortality and diseases like AIDS and malaria?

ACT NOW: These critical, life-saving funds are currently threatened in Congress! Send a message to your members of Congress. Ask them to support the president's FY 2011 budget request for the International Affairs Budget. There are few places in the U.S. federal budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved.

“The success of the G20 can’t be measured by only economic indicators, which are meaningless unless human lives are saved and vulnerable families’ well-being improved, which in itself will increase global prosperity. In the G20 countries alone, 2.5 million children are dying each year before their fifth birthdays. That's equivalent to the entire population of Toronto, and almost 30 percent of the 8.8 million babies and children who die globally, most of preventable causes.”
- Robert Zachritz, Advocacy Director, World Vision U.S.

"The development and prosperity our leaders are striving for can’t be sustained if our children are dying and a third of those who survive can’t realize their full potential as a result of childhood malnutrition."
- Sue Mbaya, Advocacy Director, World Vision Africa

These countries are now the 21st century’s economic powerhouses, with 87 percent of the world’s GDP, yet many are still failing to address dire living conditions and lack of access to health services in their communities.

"We are called to create a modern-day Book of Acts with our lives." That is the theme we will be exploring for next year! We just launched this new booklet across the country that explains Who We Are as a network and What We Are Doing this year on our campuses, in our churches, and within our communities. Check it out -- and this preview of next year's calendar!

THE YEAR AHEAD...CREATING A MODERN-DAY BOOK OF ACTS TOGETHER
OCTOBER 1 - Day of Prayer and Action
FALL STUDY - Acts + Calling – Study of the Book of Acts
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER - ACT:S to End Malaria
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER - ACT: on AIDS – Lives are on the Line
DECEMBER 1 - World AIDS Day
JANUARY/FEBRUARY - Human Wrong Initiative to Stop Child Slavery
MARCH/APRIL - Lent Study: Sacrificial Acts of Justice
APRIL 25 - World Malaria Day
SPRING - Summit on the Hill 2011 – Washington, DC

World Vision’s policy ask to the G8 & G20 for 2010

Last year the G8 agreed to the Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.(1) It is now time to operationalize this consensus. The Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health are far off-track and they will not be achieved under the business-as-usual approach. Despite gradual improvements in child health globally, maternal deaths have not budged and child mortality is still far too high at around 9 million children under five years of age dying each year. Cost-effective interventions that have been proven in a number of developing countries are available which will reduce child deaths by 65% and maternal deaths by 80%. What is needed now is effective coordinated action by all major players.

ACT NOW: Ask the G8 to take steps to end preventable child deaths

Such action will require the following four steps:

1. Increasing the level of funding for health to meet the MDG and G8 health commitments
There must be an increase in health funding from donors – from around $US20 billion per year in 2008 to $37.5 billion by 2012 and $42.5 billion by 2015. World Health Organization modeling indicates that this level of support is required to meet the Millennium Development Goals for health and the existing G8 commitments which cover child health, maternal health, HIV & AIDS and other major infectious diseases.(2) This level of funding can be realized through the achievement of current aid volume commitments and through greater priority for health in the aid budgets of a number of donor countries. The total aid required for health in 2012 is likely to make up no more than 23% of total aid in 2012.(3)

A new United Nations initiative designed to improve global maternal, newborn and child health is a welcome development but neglects to address some important action points.

Formally launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon June 7th at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, the new Joint Action Plan calls for all countries to revitalize efforts in further reducing preventable deaths among mothers and children worldwide. UN figures indicate that each year at least 350,000 mothers die, as do nearly 9 million babies and children under age five.

“This plan will help the global community build on progress made so far in tackling the needless deaths of mothers and children,” says World Vision International President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Jenkins. “World Vision commends the Secretary General’s leadership in making this health catastrophe a global priority.”

By Anna Ridout

Every parent I talk to here in eastern Congo is struggling to feed their family.

Many children are malnourished. Babies have the bleached hair caused by malnutrition. A large family of seven is surviving on a handful of sweet potatoes and assistance provided by aid agencies. A young girl has the skin of an old woman.

All around the world we’re feeling the effects of the food crisis. In some places this means cutting down on luxury puddings, eating out less or doing our weekly shop at a budget supermarket.

In other places, it’s a genuine crisis of one of our most basic of needs – food.

Next month, President Obama will attend the G8 Summit, a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful and wealthy countries. The influence that these countries have on the rest of the world cannot be understated –- particularly their impact on the poorest and most vulnerable, like mothers and children living in poverty.

Will they follow through?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, host of the 2010 summit, has confirmed that addressing child and maternal heath will be a priority at the summit. This is encouraging news for the millions of mothers and children susceptible to deadly but preventable diseases. But will G8 countries follow through?

By Chip Huber, Dean of Student Engagement/ACTS Group Advisor, Cornerstone University

On a recent Wednesday night on our campus, there were 3 different dinner options within a couple hundred yards of each other. Our dining hall featured the every day, every meal spread that offers several different entrée options, pasta, cold sandwiches, salad bar, Panini’s, cereals, and a host of dessert and drink options. To be honest, many of the hundreds of students and staff that eat there every day are often indifferent or even a bit negative about what they can choose from to eat in our serving space. The second option features hot and cold sandwiches and other snacks and desserts and drinks for those who don’t have the time to sit down to eat with others in the dining room because their schedule is too filled with other activities of greater significance. And the third option was off to the side in our student union area, and featured a large metal container that held a porridge made from corn and soy that is often given to people suffering from malnutrition and who are desperately hungry in places all over our world. Plastic bowls were being handed out and chairs had been moved to open up some space on the floor where people could spoon up the mixture while reading a card that featured a story of a child who was deeply affected by hunger in Asia, Africa, or Latin America.