World Vision Plans to Raise £5 Million For West African Children's Food Crisis - The UK Government Agree To Match It
World Vision UK - A charity focusing on helping children in poverty, war or famine affected countries are aiming to raise £5 million for the West African food crisis and the UK government have promised to match this pound for pound. A summary of the facts and figures of the ever worsening food crisis and details of malnutrition amongst children.
- (1888PressRelease) June 20, 2012 - World Vision charity are asking the British public to raise £5m to try and help children who are being directly affected by the food crisis in west Africa
• 18 million people are currently affected by the food crisis in west Africa which is only getting worse
• Niger has a huge 6.4m people who are affected
• There are around 1m children who are currently suffering from acute severe malnutrition and are in great risk of dieing unless they receive help Immediately
• The UK government have agreed that for every £1 that World Vision raises they will give another £1
The children's charity World Vision is launching an urgent appeal for the desperate food crisis situation in West Africa.
More than 18 million people in major areas such as Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Senegal don't have anywhere near enough food to eat in the drought-plagued region. 4 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition and 1 million already have cases of acute severe malnutrition, which in percentage terms means they have a 30-50% chance of dying from hunger.
World Vision believes that it is completely outrageous that these children are at risk of dieing. A twitter campaign was launched not long ago called #shareNiger which has already got to six million people through he stories of children and their families attempting to live through this terrible and most overlooked crisis. So because of this the charity is asking the British public to raise £5 million to help stop an ever-worsening crisis that's threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of children.
The UK government has promised that they will match every £1 donated to this World Vision appeal with another £1. It works out that if every working person in the UK gave only 17p then a total of £10 million could be raised for food and medical care for thousands.
Andrew Mitchell, secretary of state for international Development said: "World Vision is providing help to save lives and alleviate suffering resulting from the food crisis in West Africa - but it is also helping to reduce the risk of similar crises in the future.
"By matching public donations pound for pound from our existing aid budget, the UK Government will help World Vision double the impact it can have in meeting short term needs and building longer term resilience."
Justin Byworth, World Visions CEO has not long come back from a trip over to Niger where he saw the suffering of thousands for himself. He commented: "Children in West Africa are facing a potentially fatal food crisis. Low rainfalls and failed harvests are leaving tens of thousands of children severely malnourished. Some families are eating animal feed to stave off their hunger as the cost of food soars.
"This crisis is set to worsen over the next few months. World Vision is committed to responding now to save as many lives as we can. But we need your support to help our teams on the ground right now."
The children in West Africa are the ones who are hit hardest and are the ones who are most likely to suffer and even die from malnutrition, which is often the case and they are very vulnerable to exploitation.
• An astonishing 50,000 children have already dropped out of school in Niger alone so that they can go to work and earn some money so that they can try and provide some food for their families.
• Young children being sent away to work in major cities and towns are highly vulnerable to abuse and trafficking
• At 37.6% of girls being married off before they even reach the age of 15 in Niger this is another big concern.
World Visions aim is to reach 660,000 of the people in greatest risk in West Africa. With over 30 years of experience working within the region, the teams deployed at the front line so to speak will spend your money on giving life saving medical care to malnourished children, while supporting government efforts to restock cereal banks and by distributing seeds.
• Only £35 provides treatment for a malnourished child for 2 months.
• Only £25 helps communities to restock cereal and seed banks to try and prevent the crisis from happening again. And again.
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