"Everybody-as basic human right-has a right to food. The right to food is as basic as life itself."
-Tom Arnold, CEO, Concerned World Wide
Each night all around the world children go to bed hungry. And every year about 1 million children die from severe acute malnutrition (concernusa.org).
This topic is important to me because each morning when children are eating breakfast and I am observing, every once in a while I see a child who seems more hungry than the rest of the children, and cries until he eats. I think to myself that maybe this is the only meals that the child is getting is when they are at school and may not be getting the proper nutrition that he needs at home. When I think about children who are hungry, some of them not getting one meal a day and some not eating for days it really saddens me.
There are many causes for malnutrition in India such as gender inequality. Women of a low social status don't receive good quality nor quantities of nutrition. When women are not receiving the proper nutrition is contributes them it decreases the chances of them having normal babies. Being malnourished can lead to so many other health issues as well including but not limited to TB, pneumonia and an increased mortality rate.
Subodh Varma's writing The Times of India states that the Global Hunger Index India is on place 67 among 80 nations having the worst hunger situation which is worse than nations such as North Korea or Sudan (ifpri.org).
In my present and future work I will continuously educate parents about the importance of good nutrition and the importance of eating right and of the consequences of when they don't.
References
www.concernusa.org/Public/Program.aspx
www.ifpri.org/publication
Hi Latarsha,
ReplyDeleteI also chose India to discuss malnutrition issues. I found out that also 2.1 million children die before the age of 5 from diseases that can be prevented. Just to name a few diarrhea, typhoid, malaria, measles, and pneumonia. These illnesses are all due to malnutrition. As educator we must advocate for public health measures whenever we can, as often as we can. A healthy child that is well nourished will develop physically, socailly, and mentally.
That should be 2.1 million. Sorry for the typo.
ReplyDeleteHello Latarsha,
ReplyDelete21 million!!!!!!!! Those are astonishing numbers. It saddens me as well to see and read about children that die or are unhealthy because of malnutrition. We need better policies worldwide to tackle this problem
Hi I enjoyed reading your post and you provided great information about malnutrition. I work for Head start and I understand in your comments about we dont even know what the children are eating at home. I had a child in my class that would be so hungry for breakfast and she would always tell me she had no dinner. When it was lunch time she would eat and always wanted more and she would eat like if it would be her last meal. She started to hide food and put in her cubbie to take home. She started to tell me that she had no food at home and the only meals she had were at school. I had a meeting with my supervisor and social worker. Mother was on welfare and receiving food stamps for more than 800 a mouth. She was selling her food stamps for drugs. I felt so bad for the child and angry toward her mother. Receiving so much food stamps and being able to buy food for her children but instead buy drugs that is very sad. Your resources provide great information. Great post!!!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI also think it is very important to share information with parent and families. I am always looking for great informatin to share with them on health and nutrition on our parent board because those things are so essential to their child's learning. Resources, guest speakers, and community information really inform and educate the parents in a very positive way and I love to see them actually taking the information and using it to benefit their families.