In politics, humanitarian aid and social sciences, hunger is defined as a period when a person can't eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period of time. As much as it's hidden, it's a pressing matter.
It's a global issue that I haven't really heard a lot about. People are dying and it's sickening. A wise lady once said that, "things that don't affect the rich are not always broadcasted". On second thoughts, those words are true. You hear of global pandemics and other issues because rich and influential people have also been affected.
I went through WHO's top ten countries that are suffering from hunger and my dear county was among the first five. They made mention of countries like Yemen, South Sudan, Nigerian of course, Syria and a whole others.
Let me bring it down to Nigerian. Amongst other things which the country is facing, hunger is there to top it all up. The main cause of hunger is Conflict. Conflicts tear families apart, stifle all sources of income, destroy farms and other sources of livelihood, leaving the people with more or less crumbs.
During the pandemic, I heard and saw that citizens in other countries were being fed giving them enough reasons to stay indoors and help reduce the rate of spread of the virus but over here it was the reverse. They probably did some eye service and some hypocritic things and that was all.
Take a good look at it and you'd see
Everyone was expected to stay indoors at such short notice. Everywhere was shut down, no source of income nor source of livelihood. All that was expected from us was for us to stay indoors and not come out. If you were spotted outside, it was a very big problem.
That period, a whole lot of people died. It wasn't funny at all. They didn't die because of the pandemic. These were people that would have lived longer if they were provided with basic things like food. They died because of hunger.
Surviving the pandemic was really a miracle. It got to a point where money started losing its value. You'd probably have money but wouldn't find a store or a market to utilize it. Did I say find a store? You won't even leave your house. You had options like, have you money for breakfast, lunch and dinner or just keep it because it couldn't be used.
Global hunger is an alarming situation and it needs to be looked into. The WHO are trying their best on their part, but I think we on our part should try doing something about it too. Sensitization and orientation can go a long way in helping.
Thank you for reading.
With love, wongi.
