Seattle, U.S.A. – While drought conditions persist in West Africa, putting millions in peril, more than 150,000 teens across America will sacrifice this weekend to take part in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine, the world’s largest teen hunger awareness campaign.

Since 1992, 30 Hour Famine has raised more than $140 million, involving more than 6 million teens in fighting global hunger. This year, part of 30 Hour Famine funds will go to address the food crisis in West Africa (Mali,Niger, Senegal, Mauritania and Chad). The food crisis continues in the Horn of Africa as well.

Almost 15 million people across the Sahel (in West Africa) need food now. One million children suffer from severe malnutrition. According to a World Vision field study almost 90 per cent of people there estimate their food will run out before the next harvest. Every family surveyed said they’ve cut back on how much food they eat daily because there’s not enough to go around.

Many are forced to sell their animals to buy food but this is flooding the market causing livestock prices to plummet. Children are dropping out of school because families leave in search of food. Nearly one third of the population are still in debt from the last widespread crop failure in 2009.

This weekend, April 27th - 28th, teens nationwide prepare for the 21st annual 30 Hour Famine, forsaking food for 30 hours to get a taste of what the world’s poorest children face. Prior to the event, teens raise funds by explaining that $1 can help feed and care for a child a day. As they fast, teens consume only water and juice as they participate in local community service projects.

In 2011, 30 Hour Famine raised$9.5 million with funds going to fight global hunger. This year’s goal: $11 million. More than 850 million people will go to bed hungry tonight. World Vision is a relief and development organization reaching more than 100 million people worldwide.

World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine Manager Michele Tvedt was in the Horn of Africa recently. “I’ve seen poverty on every continent but this is the worst. Mothers burying their children in the desert – these are decisions no one should have to make. But American teens are standing with them.” Tvedt has personally done 30 Hour Famine for 13 years, adding up to more than 420 hours of fasting over the years.

Michele Tvedt is available for interviews. Here’s a link to a video: http://bit.ly/JD11rA

For info: www.30hourfamine.org or call 800-7-FAMINE or visit www.facebook.com/wv30HF

About World Vision – World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty.  World Vision serves the world’s poor regardless of a person’s religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, visit www.worldvision.org.

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New York, U.S.A. – As malnutrition reaches emergency levels across the Sahel region of West and Central Africa affecting at least one million children, UNICEF partner UPS has sprung to action to provide transport for the first aerial shipment of lifesaving UNICEF supplies to Mauritania this year, a country within the affected region.

The UPS flight, departing from Cologne, Germany on April 22 early morning contained 102,000 pounds of critical UNICEF relief supplies including nutrition, health, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene items.

UPS worked quickly with UNICEF to coordinate the shipment of relief items from various locations including UNICEF’s Supply Center in Copenhagen, in addition to Madrid, Lier, and Toulouse for delivery to Nouakchott, Mauritania on Sunday, April 22. Flying in supplies dramatically reduces the delivery time to affected communities.

“UPS understands that during humanitarian emergencies, the need to move supplies quickly is essential and can mean the difference between life and death,” said U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern. “We are extremely grateful that UPS has once again donated its expertise and services, this time to help UNICEF deliver lifesaving supplies to the one million children at risk in the Sahel region, and for their ongoing support in times of emergency.”

UPS has consistently supported UNICEF’s preparedness and emergency relief efforts, responding to the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 by offering volunteers, logistician experts, and transport services. They also donated a charter flight carrying 24 metric tons of critical UNICEF relief supplies last November from Copenhagen to Nairobi for children affected by the severe drought in the Horn of Africa.

“Logistics plays an incredibly vital role whenever a humanitarian crisis occurs, which is why UPS has lent its expertise for many years to bringing critical logistical support to areas of the world affected by disease, drought, and other disasters,” said UPS International President Dan Brutto, a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

“For example, we just completed a temperature-controlled move of flu vaccine from the U.S. to Laos.  With this drought situation in the Sahel region, millions of lives are at stake and UPS is proud to be working with our partners at UNICEF to provide timely, life-saving supplies to the people of West and Central Africa.”

An estimated 15 million people are affected by the drought in eight countries across the Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and northern Cameroon, Nigeria, and Senegal. UNICEF needs more than $60 million for immediate relief operations to save children’s lives and prevent a humanitarian disaster from unfolding.

During a recent visit to the region, UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake called for an urgent escalation of humanitarian efforts to bring about an end to the crisis. Women and children in the Sahel are suffering from the impact of multiple threats—poor harvests because of drought, high food prices, and insecurity in parts of the region. Due to recent unrest in Mali, approximately 200,000 people have been displaced to neighboring countries – including Mauritania – exacerbating the hunger crisis there.

In January and February, tens of thousands of children were treated for severe acute malnutrition at nutritional rehabilitation centers that are filling up fast with the start of the “lean season”—the period between harvests that is traditionally the worst time of the year in a harsh environment with difficult logistics.

How to help: To make a tax-deductible contribution please contact the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Website: www.unicefusa.org/sahel
Toll free : 1-800-FOR-KIDS
Mail: 125 Maiden Lane, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10038

Image Courtesy of   hdptcar

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Uganda: Millions of Americans are expected to participate in the “Cover the Night” activities outlined in the viral video phenomenon, Kony2012. Christian aid group World Vision released a video warning that, while now-infamous warlord Joseph Kony no longer threatens Ugandan communities, invisible killers continue to stalk the nation’s children – killers with far more reach than Kony’s army, even at its worst.

The violence executed by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was maniacal in its brutality. The LRA targeted innocents, abducting children and forcing them to commit inhumane acts of brutality, often against their own families, before using them as child soldiers in its military campaign. While human toll is hard to calculate, during the early 2000s, an estimated 120 to 150 people died every day as a direct result of the LRA conflict, particularly due to conditions in the squalid displacement camps where many fled to avoid LRA attack.

The LRA left Uganda in 2006, and the millions affected by the war have since been rebuilding their lives after a generation of war. But as they do, poverty-related diseases like malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition continue to kill hundreds of Ugandan children every day. Some 4% of infants in Uganda die in their first year of life; 9% die before the age of five.

“I experienced Kony’s violence myself,” said James Odong, who was abducted by the LRA at the age of 19. “I saw children killed – their lives tragically cut short. Today, hundreds of Uganda’s children were taken by the invisible killers of malaria, malnutrition and diarrhea. These deaths aren’t violent, but each loss is tragic.” Odong now serves as World Vision’s associate director for peace building.

During the conflict, World Vision provided counseling and support to former child soldiers through its Children of War Rehabilitation Program. Outside of Uganda, World Vision offices carried out extensive advocacy campaigns to raise awareness and political support for a peaceful end to the conflict.

Now that peace has returned to Uganda, World Vision’s community development programs – funded by the sponsorships of thousands of children in Uganda – continue to help provide anti-malarial bed nets, clean water systems, rehydration treatment, nutritional education, agricultural training and many more initiatives to combat these silent killers – each and every day.

All of these killers are easily prevented and easily treated with the right resources. Extreme poverty keeps most of these children’s families from accessing the preventative care and treatment they need, but with the support of groups like World Vision and others, many of these families are gaining access to lifesaving resources.

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In an effort to avert a large-scale loss of life due to malnutrition and disease, UNICEF is ramping up its operations in eight countries in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. An initial $67 million is urgently needed for UNICEF’s relief operations to save children’s lives and prevent a humanitarian disaster from unfolding.

It is estimated that across the region more than one million children will suffer in 2012 from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that requires immediate treatment. The period between harvests, also known as the “lean season,” is expected to arrive earlier this year than is typical.

Throughout the Sahel, poor rainfall has exacerbated food insecurity and loss of livestock, increasing malnutrition. The rise in food prices is also affecting the ability of households to buy food and other necessities and increasing the strain on their livelihoods, jeopardizing children’s lives.

“When humanitarian agencies and the international community are able to act in time to prevent disaster, they can save a tremendous number of lives,” said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “The lessons of the emergency in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa are crystal clear: when the warning signs of a crisis are there, as they are now in the Sahel, we need the resources to respond immediately to prevent death and human suffering. We are determined to avoid a catastrophe for children and their families.”

The Sahel nutrition crisis and UNICEF’s emergency response cover the entire countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal. Niger, where an estimated 331,000 children will face severe acute malnutrition this year, is the hardest-hit. UNICEF’s response will focus on the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition, together with emergency efforts in health, water, sanitation and hygiene, HIV, education, and child protection.

Under-nutrition poses the greatest risk factor for mortality and morbidity among young children, accounting for at least 35 percent of all child deaths per year in the region. While it is crucial to combat malnutrition across the Sahel in order to save lives, an effective response also needs to tackle the underlying and structural causes of malnutrition.

Malnourished children are more likely to fall pretty to infectious disease compared to non-malnourished children, as they have weaker immune functions. In turn, infectious disease lowers a child’s nutritional status, thus spurring a vicious cycle of malnutrition and disease.

Past experience in the region shows that in times of emergency, women and children face multiple protection risks. As population movements increase during the lean season, so does exposure to violence, abuse and neglect.

In addition, as part of their survival strategies, children from vulnerable households may be forced to drop out of school in order to work in agriculture, mining and other economic activities. Boys may be sent to beg in the streets of towns and cities, and girls may get involved in petty trading or domestic work to support their families.

Working in the Sahel for decades, UNICEF increased its delivery of life-saving interventions to more than 700,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition across the region last year and mounted a massive response to save lives during the food crises in 2005 and 2010.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/

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The @GuateSinHambre twitter page was opened on October 5 to bring awareness to the 6000 people who have died in Guatemala from causes associated with malnutrition last year. Also, to the 18 people that die every day, including children and the elderly.

In one night, @GuateSinHambre gained over 300 followers and is aiming for thousands more in order to present this issue to the presidential candidates in Guatemala. This movement is trying to gain support, not only from people who reside in Guatemala but also support from people around the world, using every media outlet possible to spread the news.

The project was created on the initiative of Luis Enrique Monterroso, head of the Right to Food Department of the Human Rights Office in Guatemala, Jose Luis Vivero, chief of the Central America Mission Against Hunger and pharmacy and nutrition students at Galileo University, who want to do something to help their country.

#GuateSinHambre will be the official twitter hashtag for an upcoming event taking place on October 16, 2011, in Obelisco, Guatemala City, in hopes that it will become a trending topic. During this time, people won’t be eating during the daytime and at six o’clock, participants will gather to mourn the 6575 people who died last year from malnutrition, by fasting and lighting a candle in their memories.

The event will showcase Guatemala’s unity as a country, and how it is time for a change, particularly through the eyes of the young people that inhabit the country. The goal of the event is to pressure two presidential candidates that are running for a second election, to include an agricultural strategy in their plan to reshape the country.

It will show what a significant issue this is, and that it needs to be dealt with immediately. The citizens of Guatemala are coming together with the intention of no longer keeping quiet about the major issues in the country. They are sharing their voices in unison, fighting against injustice.

Another goal of GuateSinHambre is to organize a watch group with which to keep an eye on the 33000 villages in Guatemala, and to gather information from them. The sponsored families will be responsible for maintaining their “centinela site”. These families will also receive an introduction to how the system works, which will take up to two days.

A watch group will record information in an excel sheet on a monthly basis, to report to the human rights prosecutor and the ministry of Food and Nutrition security in case action is needed in a certain village.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/diskmix/

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