World Hunger: Uniting against Discrimination, Death, and Deprivation

Introduction

Hunger affects 800 million people or 11% of the world’s population. Hunger also takes 25,000 of those lives a day. My name is Dheqa Moussa, and I attend Highview Middle School in Minnesota as an eighth grader. We are currently in our Human Rights project, where we research an issue in our world today and take action on it. I researched hunger, and to help make a difference, my group and I worked with Feed My Starving Children to package food for those that are affected by the hunger crisis in Guatemala.

We decided to learn about this topic because of how it discriminates, kills, and robs people of their basic human right to food.

World Hunger and Discrimination

The hunger crisis is a human rights issue our society needs to fix because of how it discriminates. An article from The Hunger Project stated, “Despite the fact that women in developing countries provide nearly 70 percent of the agricultural labor, they continue to account for over 60 percent of the world’s hungry. Gender discrimination limits a woman farmer’s access to agricultural inputs, credit services, and a market to sell her products. These constraints lead to lower crop yields, produce sold at a lower price, and, .ultimately, continued poverty and hunger for her and her children.” Women in the agricultural industry of developing countries are often led to starvation and poverty due to discrimination. Though, they are not the only group that faces hunger as an outcome of being marginalized. Ethnic minorities are often discriminated against, leading to high levels of hunger and poverty. High levels of poverty are also seen in rural areas, which, in turn, also face large populations of people who are hungry. Hunger targets trivialized groups as its victims, which is one of the many points as to why the hunger crisis needs to be rectified.

The Death Toll of Hunger

The hunger crisis needs also needs to be solved because of how many lives it claims. The World Food Program discovered that “hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to relative research; WFP said in the release that there are 25,000 people, both adults and children, die a day from hunger and related causes.” It has been found that of those deaths, 14,000 of those are children, calculating a child dying every 6 seconds. Those who are led to hunger, all 800 million, suffer from a lack of resources that can help them lead a healthy lifestyle with adequate amounts of food (Food Aid Foundation). Hunger claims tens of thousands of lives every day, a large percentage of them are children, and needs to be solved to stop it from taking any more.

Human Right to Food

The hunger crisis is a human rights issue our society needs to fix because of how it bars people from their human right to food. “The last report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows hunger is on the rise again, affecting more than 800 million people in 2016. In addition, 11% of the global population does not have enough food to lead a healthy and active life, a violation of UDHR Article 25”. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR, is a set of 30 human rights given to every person and was created by the United Nations. Article 25 of the UDHR grants every person the right to an adequate living standard, including food and clothing. The hunger crisis in our world takes away 800 million people’s basic human rights. Of those 800 million, 200 million are children suffering from starvation. Also, of all children under the age of 5, one-third of their deaths are due to undernutrition. These lives that are affected and killed due to a lack of food take away their birth-given right to lead ‘ an adequate living standard.’

Hunger is an issue that faces many people in our world and needs help to be fixed. Many people believe that they are just one person and that they can’t help fix something that involves 800 million people in the world. Although, one person can still help many others. Organizations like Feed My Starving Children, give people the opportunity to help package meals that are sent to those in need around the world or sponsor one person to a whole village for a year. One person may not be able to completely end world hunger, but they help end another person’s hunger.

Conclusion

Hunger is a human rights issue that discriminates, kills, and takes away people’s basic human rights. It can be solved by simple acts such as donating food to a local food drive or by donating money. My group packaged food to be sent to people thousands of miles away from us, and along with the rest of the people in our packaging session, we sent enough food to sponsor 86 children for a year. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, I ask you to use one of the aforementioned options as a way for you to help another person’s hunger. Along with your help and anyone else who does their part to stop another person’s hunger, we can end world hunger. Together.

References:

1. Moussa, D. “Addressing World Hunger: Uniting Against Discrimination, Death, and Deprivation.” Highview Middle School Essay, Minnesota, 2023.

2. The Hunger Project. “Gender Discrimination and World Hunger.” 

3. Global Hunger Index. “Global Hunger Index 2017: The Inequalities of Hunger.” Welthungerhilfe, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Concern Worldwide.

4. World Food Program (WFP). “Hunger Statistics.”

5. Food Aid Foundation. “Hunger Statistics.” 

6. World Health Organization (WHO). “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70.” 

7. United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” 

8. “Poor nutrition ‘stunting growth’ of nearly 200 million children.” 

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