The Famine in the Horn of Africa & Why it is crucial we help!

Courtesy : Adithya Jayakumar

A person dying of starvation/hunger in the 21st century questions the very progress we have made as a species.

If you haven’t heard of the famine in the Horn of Africa by now, you must be living under a rock (refer Patrick Star). I am interested in a plethora of things, but quite frankly nothing of late has affected me like this one. What is a hard pill for me to swallow is the fact that even in today’s world, millions of people over a short period of time could potentially die of hunger . This is something that is difficult for me to even contemplate. I mean who dies of hunger in the 21st century? With the great advancements in science and technology that have been made over the last century or so, it does not seem entirely unreasonable to think that death caused due to hunger on a large scale would be a thing of the past. But sadly, that is not the case.

Extreme drought, poverty and/or an unstable (non-existent?) government in countries in the Horn of Africa has blown the problem out of proportions. The Horn of Africa includes Somalia and Ethiopia. (It is called the horn of Africa because it resembles a horn (belonging to a rhino, perhaps?)). The situation in some of these areas is dire, to say the least. The UN estimates that 11 million people require food support immediately. It is so bad, that the UN has declared a famine in two places in Somalia ( the first famine declared in the African continent in 3 decades). And famine is not a word that is just thrown around. A famine is declared by the United Nations only under extreme circumstances – Check out this link. The fact that this a famine, implies that people many many people have already died as a result of this and scores more are at an immediate risk of suffering a similar fate.

It is shocking to even think that in this day and age, when, in parts of the planet people are talking about how soon we can get to Mars, there are people dying in other parts because of a lack of food. The more I think about it, the more wrong and worrying it becomes. If we are unable to feed ourselves today, when the planet is more than capable of feeding its 6.8 billion or so inhabitants, I wonder what the situation will be in 50 or a 100 years from now and beyond when the world’s population doubles, or triples or quadruples. What happens then?

In spite of all these obstacles, my faith in humanity is unwavering. We are a great and resilient species like no other. But now is the time we need to prove to ourselves and show our future generations that when extraordinary circumstances arose, we stood up to the challenge. We did not just sit back and let our fellow men die. But we fought as one and did everything possible to overthrow the plague that is starvation. We need to come together now more than ever to save ourselves, because what affects some of us affects all of us.

Donate to the WFP : https://www.wfp.org/donate/hoa_banners

Take a short quiz and feed a child: http://gifts.wfp.org/quiz/hornofafrica

Sign the petition on ONE asking leaders to help : http://act.one.org/sign/protect_fy2012/

Other ways you can help: http://www.wfp.org/stories/horn-africa-10-ways-you-can-help