Thursday, June 26, 2008

Ethiopian Food Crisis Reaches Horrific Levels

by Asha Castleberry

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While we are eating our meals everyday, please be aware of how grateful you should be to have that advantage. Unfornately, this is very uncommon in Ethopia.

Today, over 4.6 million Ethopian children are suffering from starvation due to the lack of food, water, and poor health care. Also, an estimate of 1.6 million are affected by the HIV virus. These poor conditions have led a large portion of the population to die from malnutrion. The UN children's agency reported that these children urgently need emergency food aid because starvation will continue to spread from famine and drought. Late seasonal rains have caused dramatic food shortage, which is very critical because 80 percent of the people live off of agricultural consumption. For the past ten years, domestic production has fallen and is affecting 85 percent of all exports.

Poor health conditions have caused dramatic defects in growth. About 47% of Ethiopian children five years of age or younger are moderately to severely underweight, and 52% suffer from stunted growth. The life expentacy rate is 46 years old. (United States is 77 years old).

In 2003, the United Nations launched a food relief program that helped up to 14 million people. At that time, Ethopia experienced one of worst famines in the world. The Ethopian government claimed that they were unable to provide relief to the people but still work to appeal to international donors. Currently, an estimated 300 million in emergency aid is reported to be required to overcome the problem which has now spread to all corners of the country. The UK has also offered 19.5 million in aid.

1 comment:

Lisa Wootens said...

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