I was talking with a woman from Washington, D.C. about her non profit and listening to her passion about helping women and children in Africa. I can feel when people are passionate about a cause and I enjoy knowing people who are enthused about what they are doing.
The challenge I have with organizations focused on Africa or any other country is two-fold: 1) there are too many people competing for the same exposure and more importantly 2) we have more children in our own country who are in need and are neglected.
I’ll explain what I mean about the competition. I personally have met no less than twenty women in the past six months who are in or starting organizations for the aid of women in Africa. If each of those organizations joined forces, they would have more momentum rather than competing with each other. It is a great cause, but the results are diluted because of the amount of people trying to grass roots their own organization.
Secondly, we have more children dying of malnutrition in the United States than all countries in the world except for three: Asian, African and Latin American. (Thinkquest.org)
In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children. (Thinkquest.org)
The World Health Organization cites malnutrition as the gravest single threat to the world’s public health
Thinkquest.org quotess:
- In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called “absolute poverty”
- Every year 15 million children die of hunger
So let’s take care of the home front, get the children the food they need to survive here and then develop an educational program for nutrition and how we can stop this devastating merry-go-round for once and for all.