Today, even as I immerse myself in the wonders of African cooking, I need to mention malnutrition and hunger. In the same breath, as it were.
Today’s a day when many bloggers around the world will post comments and material on the ever-present problem of hunger in our communities, countries, and the world as a whole.
Africa, perhaps more than other parts of the world, still bears the burden of deep hunger.
Malnutrition, the scourge of ancient history. And the scourge of modern history, too.
As I have mentioned before, I once worked on a malnutrition ward in Honduras and to see children — or any person of any age, for that matter — suffering from malnutrition really distresses me. So many factors come into play, yes, with this horror.
But those of us who have enough to eat, who don’t know real hunger, and never have and possibly never will, must simply not stand idly by and just watch. Somehow we must take our seeing and do something about it.
This video from the Voice of America shows the trials of malnourished children in Ethiopia, but their situation resembles that of other children throughout the world. In Africa, there is wonderful food, women cook delicious stews and other dishes for their families, but Africa has been afflicted greatly by conditions that lead to malnutrition, particularly child hunger and illness. [Video from June 2008, U.N. World Food Program.]
© 2009 C. Bertelsen
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
Why must people suffer with all the food this world has–?? In America with all our resources we have people going to bed every night hungry. WHY??
Thank You for sharing this problem with your readers!
Thank you for calling attention to this – and for reminding us all about how unbelievably spoiled we are in this country. I’m heading right over to my blog to post something about this and, hopefully, add another voice to the call for help.
thank you so much.