Category: The SDGs – 18 Blogs to give an overview and context to the SDGs- Read on…

2. Hunger

2. Hunger

Posted on by Mother Earth

SDG 2, Hunger

Earth year  4,492,056,017
Mother Earth/ Gaia‘s Blog

Mankind, My children

In my first blog post I asked that you commit to following my blogs for the next few weeks to give me a chance to explain the important issues affecting our joint survival. Blog post 2 started to give you some facts about the topic of Poverty and what sorts of actions are needed. Now I want to talk to you about SDG 2, HUNGER.

The problem

The vast majority of the worlds’ hungry people live in developing countries where nearly 13% of the population (about 1 in 9 persons) is undernourished. Two thirds of all those undernourished are from Asia and poor nutrition causes nearly half of the deaths in children under 5. In sub Saharan Africa, the rate of undernourishment is around 23% and in developing countries 1 in 3 children suffer stunted growth because of poor nutrition.

Do you feel guilty and helpless when watching TV reports about the extremely poor and hungry? Do you feel sorry for them and the starving children you see when there are reports of disasters and catastrophes from the developing world? Have you ever thought about what YOU might do to help make the world a better place where hunger and suffering could be reduced? Now is your chance to do something to change the world!

DFID – UK Department for International Development (Flickr: Malnourished children, weakened by hunger) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The facts:

  • 795 million people around the World are under nourished
  • 66 Million primary school age children attend classes hungry
  • 1 person in 9 of the world population goes to bed hungry
  • Hunger kills more people than AIDS, Malaria and TB combined

WCYDo (What Can You Do?)

1. Buy fair trade fruit once a week to help poor farmers
2. Support charities such as www.stophungernow.org, www.riseagainsthunger.org, www.echonet.org www.fmsc.org
3. Share the facts about Hunger to family and friends so they do it too

Encourage others to join us and to visit our Facebook and Twitter feeds  to sign up for our newsletter and information about our proposed WCYDo APP. See you next week on blog post 4, which will be about Health and Well-Being.

 

3. Health and Well-being

3. Health and Well-being

Posted on by Mother Earth

SDG 3, Health and Well-being

Earth year 4,492,056,017
Mother Earth/ Gaia‘s Blog

Mankind, My children

In my first blog post (week 1,  blog post 1 – Introduction) I asked that you commit to following my blogs for the next few weeks to give me a chance to explain the most important issues affecting our joint survival. Subsequent Blogs have started to give you some facts about the big and important Global issues that need to be addressed and what sorts of actions you should take. In today’s blog post I want to talk about SDG 3 – HEALTH and WELL-BEING.

The problem

By USAID Africa Bureau (Health care for sick babies Uploaded by Elitre) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Health activities over the last 15 years have had some successes but there is still much to do. Since 2000 the chances of mothers dying in childbirth has reduced by half but in developing countries the maternal death rates are still 14 times higher than in developed countries. Measles vaccines have averted over 15 million deaths but children born into poverty are still twice as likely to die before they reach age 5. AIDS remains a major problem. By 2018 there were 37.9 million with HIV / AIDS of which 1.7 million were children under 15. Although there have been improvements in recent years, HIV is the leading cause of death worldwide for women of reproductive age. An estimated 50 adolescent girls die every day from AIDS-related illnesses. And each day, some 460 adolescent girls become infected with HIV.

Do you feel pity when watching TV reports about the poor health facilities and suffering of the poor in developing countries who have no access to health services and cannot afford medicines? Do you feel sorry for them? Have you ever thought about what YOU might do to help make the world a better place where such persons might be helped? Now is your chance to do something to change the world!

The facts

  1. 6 million children die before they reach 5 years of age
  2. Children born into poverty are twice as likely to die before they are 5
  3. Child born to an educated mother 50% more likely to survive to reach 5 years
  4. 22 million people with HIV have no access lifesaving medicines

WCYDo (What Can You Do?)

  1. Share the facts about Global health to family and friends to encourage action
  2. Support health charities working in developing countries, such as internationalmedicalcorps.org, www.doctorswithoutborders.org, www.hki.org, www.pih.org
  3. Write to your politicians asking what your country is doing to help on this topic.

Encourage others to join us and to visit our social accounts to sign up for our newsletter and information about our proposed WCYDo APP. See you next week on blog post 5, which will be about SDG 4 – Education.