Hunger

Hunger in Africa is caused by the continuing food shortage in various regions of Africa and drought, are now at a record 11 million loud. The increasing number of children and families at-risk of malnutrition, and those already starving, is due to what Save the Children and other humanitarian organizations are calling the worst drought Africa has seen since 1984.

How can it be that children in one region of the world are starving, while others are not?

“It’s poverty. We are poor,” says 11-year-old Stevie, a Save the Children beneficiary affected by the drought. “My mom died; my dad is in the hospital; and there is no one to take care of me or my siblings, or to give us food.”

Situations like this are all too common says Loice Cheptoo, Save the Children's district officer of Kajiado, Kenya. “We’ve had families moving where maybe children are being left alone. Others have moved with their children and this has interrupted their education,” she says.

Many families have cut their meals down to one a day. Mothers are going without eating in order to feed their children.

“Our children are hungry. Our husbands have gone to the mountains to search for food. The goats and cows have died. The wells have dried up,” says Rosemary Adoing, a drought-effected mother living in Isiolo, Kenya.

Many of the rural farming communities affected by the drought relied on their livestock for milk and income. The drought has caused the severe malnutrition and death of these animals, thus crippling rural economies.

Save the Children is providing relief by facilitating livestock trading programs and by providing food and nutrition services, including specialized meals for children 5 years old and younger whose malnourished bodies may not be able to digest advanced grains.