Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?

Why is Child Hunger in Nigeria Such a Big Problem?

A Review of the Literature

Emma Hammond

Edina High School

Authors Note

This paper was prepared for Pre-AP English 10 taught by Mrs.Taylor, Hour 4
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
2

Why is Child Hunger in Nigeria Such a Big Problem?

A Review of the Literature

Introduction

Over the past few months, child hunger and malnourishment are drastically increasing in

Nigeria, and there are many reasons for this. Several farmers are not able to approach their land

as a result of Boko Haram attacks, and many children are dying from hunger because doctors are

getting denied a needed military escort. Also, the amount of organizations and the government

funding for food and overall help have gone down significantly. 4.5 million people need food

assistance in Nigeria (World Food Programme USA, 2016). There are so many things people

can do to help fix this problem. There is not enough access to any type of food for people to eat,

so donations of food and money need to go to organizations who are helping to solve this issue.

Background and Evidence of Problem

Child Hunger in Nigeria

Child hunger is when children are not getting an adequate amount of food and are

malnourished. An estimated 244,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, including

up to 49,000 children who are at risk of dying if not reached with treatment (World Food

Programme USA, 2016). In an effort to solve this problem, society needs to take more actions to

fix this major issue. Kent Garber comments that there are 8 ways to fix the global food crisis

and those eight ways are to Take a Pause on Biofuels, Produce Higher Yields, Curb the

Speculators, Break Down Trade Barriers, Share the Crowded Planet, Eat less meat, Improve

Food Aid, and Grow Better Crops (Garber, 2008). Those eight suggestions are simply some of

a myriad of ways to fix this issue but the main idea in this article is that people should be more
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
3

mindful of eating less meat. In addition to families, restaurants and markets also can help by

being conscientious of where they buy food and what type of food they purchase. Restaurants

could lower the amount of meat they purchase from a farmer or factory so they dont waste meat

that doesnt get consumed. Producing food from larger animals such as pigs and cows consumes

more resources than would producing food from a smaller animal like a chicken. It would be

better for one to order or buy chicken than beef because it takes about 7 pounds of corn to

produce 1 pound of beef...and 2.6 pounds of corn to produce 1 pound of chicken (Garber,

2008). Buying less meat would lower the demand for grains and therefore lower the price of the

food that the hungry children need. Additionally, donating food or even money to a food shelf or

a child hunger organization will make a positive impact.

Also contributing to the hunger problem in Nigeria is Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant

Islamist group. Boko Haram fighters are still launching attacks around Borno state, preventing

aid workers from accessing as many as 2 million people (Sieff, 2016). Many children have died

from hunger when aid workers were denied the military escort they needed to receive more

medical help. Several farmers are not able to approach their land because of Boko Haram. The

farmers are unable to access their farm and therefore they are unable to grow food to feed

themselves and others.

Case Study

Anja Ringgren Loven is a Danish woman who was living in Nigeria, Africa. On January

31, 2016 Loven was walking around and saw this little two-year-old Nigerian boy on the street.

This little boy looked abnormally thin and weak. She decided to go up to him and gave him

water and some food. At that point, Loven knew she had to do something so she took matters
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
4

into her own hands and grabbed a blanket wrapping this disoriented little boy and took him to

the nearest hospital for help (Stanton, 2016). When they arrived at the hospital, Loven realized

he had worms so he was given immediate treatment and daily blood transfusions to add more red

blood cells back into his body. Loven named this little boy Hope and asked for the communitys

help. Within just two days, she received $1million in donations from around the world

(Stanton, 2016). With the help of this funding, Hope recovered in just eight weeks and was

unrecognizable. Hope began as a frail young child with nothing but skin and bones and

transformed into a strong healthy boy. Later, Loven discovered that Hopes family abandoned

him because they thought he was a witch. Before she found him, he provided for himself for

eight months living off of practically nothing. Hope has made an incredible recovery and is now

happy and healthy. He has gained weight and has been smiling and playing with other

children. This case study illustrates how easily child hunger can be reversed when those who

are in need get the proper medical help and food they need.

Short and Long Term Effects

Children who are malnourished will most likely have short or long term effects on their

life. Some examples of short term effects are reduced immunity and increased susceptibility to

diseases, diseases resulting from micronutrient deficiencies such as anaemia (iron deficiency),

scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and rickets (vitamin D deficiency) and reduced or slow growth

(Lining, 2016). On the other hand, long term effects can be just as egregious, such as stunting

from limited bone growth, neurological and cognitive disorders such as decreased IQ, learning

disabilities, attention deficit disorders, memory deficiency, reduced language and social skills
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
5

and reduced problem solving skills, delayed sexual development, osteoporosis and of course,

death (Lining, 2016).

Current Action and Proposed Solutions

Programs That Help

As child hunger continues to grow, any help that is given is essential. Two organizations

that help with this issue are Revolution Hunger and Feed My Starving Children. They are two of

many organizations helping out this major obstacle and both have the same goal which is to end

world hunger in children. Anyone can help out! Revolution Hunger is a non-profit campaign

organization that tries to encourage teens to generate an everlasting commitment to fix the

problems of hunger and malnourishment around the world (Revolution Hunger, 2016). They

have three mottos: Face It, Fight It, and Live It (Revolution Hunger, 2016). For example

anyone can participate in the activities. To face it, a person must be changed by recognizing the

hunger problem and the reasons for hunger. To fight it, one would become involved in hunger

awareness campaigns and make a difference in other people's thoughts and actions. To live it,

someone would live their mission every day (Revolution Hunger, 2016) by choosing or

financially supporting a career such as farming, being a politician, a journalist, a scientists and

more. One would want to become a Hunger Fighter because it means "you are committed to

fighting world hunger (Revolution Hunger, 2016). They learn about it. They fight hunger, and

they are constantly interested in new and exciting opportunities to become a better Hunger

Fighter" (Revolution Hunger, 2016). If one worked hard enough one could become a Revolution

Hunger ambassador. An ambassador would be able to have access to have an internship,

Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
6

scholarships, events, and resources to continue the fight against hunger(Revolution Hunger,

2016).

For all of those three mottos, Revolution Hunger would require teens to do activities then

submit what they did and then earn points. Revolution Hunger has a list of different ways to

earn points on their website. Face is 400 points, fight is 300 points and live is 300 points. The

more points one would earn the closer one would be to becoming a Hunger Fighter. Once one

earns 1,000 points one becomes a Hunger Fighter. Revolution Hunger believes that there are a

substantial amount of resources in the world that no one, anywhere, anytime should go hungry

(Revolution Hunger, 2016). Also they believe that everyone is a Hunger Fighter. Revolution

hunger was created, in order to inspire the next generation to fight hunger and malnourishment

around the world (Revolution Hunger, 2016).

When volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, one will package food such as rice,

soy, dried vegetables, vitamins and minerals into bags that are then sealed, boxed, placed on

pallets and shipped to (Feed My Starving Children, 2016) countries with children in need.

Within the two hours of volunteering, one would have the ability to impact thousands of

childrens lives. FMSC always asserts that, We want to reach everyone, until ALL are fed

(Feed My Starving Children, 2016). When they say that, they mean that nobody should go

hungry if something as easy as volunteering can be done to fix this issue. As a Christian

non-profit organization, they use volunteers and their resources to feed God's starving children

(Feed My Starving Children, 2016). This is an arduous task that helps children all around the

world who are problematic to reach. FMSC is still going strong because of the volunteers and

those who open-handedly contribute their time and energy to FMCS around the world (Feed
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
7

My Starving Children, 2016). Everyone who offers their help is an essential part of this

organization because FMSC uses hands-on work by the volunteers. The personal aspect of

packing the food up as a team for children in need influences volunteers to help again in the

future. When working with FMSC, participants build strong relationships with others and get to

experience a fun way of giving back to those in need (Feed My Starving Children, 2016).

Conclusion

Child hunger and malnourishment is a massive problem. Children who are malnourished

will most likely have short or long term effects on their life. If child hunger is not stopped, then

thousands of children will die, therefore, society must act to address this major issue. There are

so many simple and different things one can do to help fix the problem of child hunger and

malnourishment. Becoming involved simply by doing the smallest thing can have a huge impact

on someone's life. There is still not enough access to any source of food for people to eat, so any

donation of food and money must go to organizations who are already helping to solve this issue.

Little children are dying because of something they cannot control. They cannot control if they

are hungry or not because they are not old enough to have a job or make food for themselves or

even prepare a meal. Africa still holds the highest place on the list of malnutrition affected

places, and its concentrated now in Nigeria (Kritika, 2014). Anja Ringgren Loven helped

rebuild this little child Hope from only skin and bone into a strong healthy boy. Revolution

Hunger and Feed My Starving Children are two of many organizations helping out this major

obstacle and both have the same goal which is to end world hunger in children. Anyone can help

out, are you going to be one of them?

Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
8

References

Action against hunger. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.actionagainsthunger.org

Egbejule, E. (2916, September 1). Malnutrition rates in Nigeria horrifying. Retrieved from

https://www.irinnews.org/news/2016/09/01/malnutrition-rates-nigeria-horrifying

Feed my starving children. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.fmsc.org/en

Garber, K. (2008, May 9). 8 ways to fix the global food crisis. Retrieved from

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/05/09/8-ways-to-fix-the-global-food-crisis

Kritika, N. (2014, August 2). The 10 most malnourished countries in the world. Retrieved from

http://lists10.com/top-10-malnourished-countries-world/

Lining, S. (2016, July 7). On the Current Issue of Malnutrition in Nigeria. Retrieved from

https://silverliningnigeria.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/on-the-current-issue-of-malnutritio

n-in-nigeria/

Nigeria emergency. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/nigeria

Revolution hunger. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.revolutionhunger.org/the-issue

Sieff, K. (2016, October 14). 75,000 children in nigeria could die from hunger over the next year.

Retrieved from WorldViews website:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/14/75000-children-in-ni

geria-could-die-from-hunger-over-the-next-year/

Stanton, J. (2016, March 31). Incredible recovery of the nigerian 'witch child' who was left for

dead by his parents: Care worker reveals pictures of fighting fit two-year-old after

heart-breaking image shocked the world. Retrieved from Daily Mail.com website:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3517808/Incredible-recovery-Nigerian-witch-ch
Running Head: WHY IS CHILD HUNGER IN NIGERIA SUCH A BIG PROBLEM?
9

ild-left-dead-parents-Care-worker-reveals-two-year-old-healthier-heart-breaking-image-s

hocked-world.html

World food program USA. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.wfpusa.org