Blog 5 Special report: The hungry generation

            A quarter of the world’s young children are malnourished according to new findings.  This malnutrition leads to stunted growth and mental development.  Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Peru, and Nigeria contain half of the world’s stunted children, due to raises in global food prices.  According to Justin Forsyth, the chief executive of A Life Free from Hunger: Tackling Child Malnutrition, "half a billion children will be physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years".  Over the recent years extreme weather conditions, diverted farmland, and the global financial crisis has caused the prices of food to rise; and of course the poor are hit the hardest by this.  Malnutrition is seen as a silent killer because it is often not documented on death certificates in developing countries.  It is believed to cause one third of all child deaths, but it does not receive as much attention as other diseases, such as malaria and AIDs.  Around 85 percent of children that do not die young from malnutrition disabled physically and mentally.  According to the World Bank this stunting reduces the GDP of developing countries by between 2 and 3 per cent.  Over the years unnecessary child deaths have fallen from 12 million a year to 7.6 million a year, but now the world food crisis is threatening to stall this progress.  The Save The Children foundation wants the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, to call a world hunger meeting in London while world leaders will be there during the Olympic games.  They hope to raise more awareness for this silent killer in order to save the lives and prevent stunted development of millions of young children. 

            More awareness should be raised for children in developing countries who suffer from malnutrition.  If more awareness is raised for this silent killer publically then more can be done to help solve the issue.  Although many organizations have done a great job in raising awareness and providing more vaccinations to poverty-stricken children, the immunizations will not do any good to a child who is physically or mentally disabled due to malnutrition.  The money and time spent on these vaccines will be lost if these children are going to die from the lack of food.  Both are important contributions that lead to a healthy population.  It is important that the world leaders take the time to sit down and discuss what can be done to help bring nutrition to the starving children.  After all the economy is suffering on a global scale, so leaders from all over the world should get involved to figure out a way to bring food prices down for the poor.  It will also take the support from private foundations to help bring light to the issue and provide resources to help solve the issue of malnutrition in the children of developing countries.  With more available food these children can grow and become productive members of society, possibly leading to benefits for the economy.  

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/special-report-the-hungry-generation-6917533.html