Hunger in Africa - Causes and Effects - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Most of the countries which are intensely affected by the hunger crisis are West Africa, South Sudan, East Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Chad, Senegal, etc (“Fighting Hunger in Africa”). Currently, Africa is still suffering from this kind of crisis among its people and is still having difficulty resolving this never-ending issue. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the hunger in Africa and the major causes of why until now the countries in this continent still starve to death. However, due to the wide scope of the topic of hunger in Africa, this paper is only limited to the effects of hunger among children.

Hunger in Africa
Hunger can cause a series of health problems and nutritional deficiencies if a person failed to eat a sufficient amount of food intake on a daily basis. These mainly include malnutrition, stunting, underweight, undernourishment, and worst death (“Hunger”). Children are at higher risk of acquiring these health conditions due to their vulnerability and low immunity. In Africa, there are about 227 million people suffering from famine and severe malnutrition. According to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), every minute, 12 people die in Africa because of extreme hunger (Chiumia). Most of these hungry individuals are situated in rural areas in which their means of livelihood is agriculture and has no alternative sources of income which made them highly vulnerable to crisis like hunger (“Hunger”).

For instance, in West Africa, a number of African families had been experiencing starvation due to lack of food sources to suffice the needs of their hungry stomachs because of insufficient rainfall and failed crops. Food and even water shortages brought individuals to extreme hunger and acute malnutrition specifically children who, at their age, highly need enough food and nutrition for them to grow healthy and well-nourished. However, reports had shown that families in countries of Africa can hardly give their family members enough food to eat every day because of extreme poverty, high food prices, and droughts on their farms (“West Africa Child Hunger”). If not given immediate solution, malnutrition rate in Africa among individuals particularly children will grow. As a result, the immune system of children will weaken due to poor nutrition permitting them towards acquiring diseases that might kill them if treated right away. These mainly include pneumonia, malaria, and diarrhea (“Fighting Hunger in Africa”).

In Niger, the absenteeism rate among children in school is relatively high. Half of the class had been absent due to their intense desire to help their parents to earn a living. These children are forced to work at an early age upon seeing that their parents can no longer give them enough amount of food everyday due to poverty. Hence, they prefer to be absent in school than to let their family members starve to death. As a consequence, they took for granted their chances to have a better lives in the future through education and also, their right had been exploited due to child labor (“West Africa Child Hunger”). However, we cannot blame these children for their actions because what they are doing are for the benefit and survival of their families in a day to day basis. ...Download file to see next pages Read More