In Asia, Africa and Latin America more than 500 million people live in “absolute poverty.”
STATEWIDE – In Asia, Africa and Latin America more than 500 million people live in “absolute poverty.”
One in 12 people – 1.3 billion – worldwide are malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.
More than 850 million people around the world barely have enough to eat to sustain life, and annually, more than 10 million children under the age of five die from diseases and malnutrition as a result of hunger.
It is almost incomprehensible, especially to many who live in the United States; such conditions could exist in the world today. But world hunger does exist, and it is 100 percent preventable.
On the weekend of April 19, 21 members of the youth group of Hebron Baptist Church in Bush learned firsthand what it would be like to go without food by participating in a “30 Hour Famine.” The participants – four boys and 17 girls – ranged from 12 to 17 years of age.
“I originally heard about this event through the seminary (New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary), and again when I was a youth intern in Athens, Ga. Using the guidelines of the World Vision Organization the kids got a taste of what many people go through daily,” said Andrew Floyd, youth minister. “I think the weekend helped the kids gain spiritually and in awareness of the overall problem. It was designed to teach them three things: