Unfortunately, the world didn’t have much time to recover. Conflict, political instability, economic shocks, and weather extremes led to even greater food insecurity in 2021. According to the “2022 Global Report on Food Crises,” 193 million people experienced acute (or crisis-level) food insecurity – an increase of nearly 40 million people since 2020. And more than 26 million children suffered from wasting due to acute malnutrition, leaving them vulnerable to stunted growth, disease, and death.
Compassion International found hunger and malnutrition to be a significant issue for the children in its program and their families. Although some of Compassion’s field countries could easily be identified in the UN’s most recent “hunger hotspots” list – including Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Myanmar, and Colombia – food insecurity continues to impact each country and region where the international child development organization works.
Palamanga Ouali, Compassion’s regional vice president for Africa, says, “Our church partners on the front lines of poverty are seeing rising food costs, failing crops, and malnourished children. They’re seeing it before it’s in the news. Because our staff are serving children before disasters. During disasters. And they stay after the disaster.”
Eunice, a widowed mother in Kenya, faced one such disaster. Her community hadn’t seen rain in 17 months, and families like Eunice’s, who rely on livestock, were highly affected. Her family lost 12 sheep and three goats to the drought, from their original 40 animals. She couldn’t provide milk or meat for her children, and she couldn’t sell milk or meat to meet their basic needs. Her son, a participant in Compassion’s child development program, explains, “We went to school knowing there is no food at home.”
Knowing the community, Compassion’s local church partner immediately responded to the need. Emma, the center director, shares, “We acted directly and promptly to the actual needs of families, with the foremost need being food. We are assured that our families are not going to bed hungry.” Through intervention funds, the church provided 284 families with unconditional cash transfers to help parents and caregivers buy food and meet immediate needs. Before the support, most families did not have enough to eat. Eunice says, “If Compassion had not provided the food money, I would have been chancing every day, hoping for a miracle.”
While Eunice’s story took an encouraging turn, the war in Ukraine is worsening an existing global food crisis. Together, Russia and Ukraine supply almost 30% of the world’s wheat (plus barley, sunflower seed oil, and corn), feeding billions of people. With Russia’s exports hit by strict sanctions and Ukraine’s planting season disrupted by the fighting, a huge source of the world’s food supply remains trapped. Combined with the skyrocketing costs of fuel and fertilizer, the conflict has sent global food prices, already high post-covid, soaring. Without urgent support, other stories might take a turn towards malnutrition or starvation.
So, on this World Hunger Day, how can you make a difference for hungry children and families? Compassion shares three ways:
Get the facts on hunger. Learn how hunger affects children and their families. Explore how conflict creates chronic hunger. Watch this urgent video message from Compassion’s church partners. Educate yourself on the link between poverty and hunger. Read up on topics like food security or malnutrition. Share what you learned with those in your sphere of influence and spread the word about the growing food crisis.
Become part of the solution through support. Find humanitarian organizations that work with developing nations and support them. Compassion’s response to the global food crisis is two-fold: providing food parcels and cash transfers to stop hunger in the short term – and empowering families with seeds, fertilizer, livestock, and training so they’ll have sustainable food supplies in the long term. Each of these solutions is made possible through financial support. (You can donate here to provide both immediate and long-term support to malnourished children and families through Compassion.) As Emma reflects on the aid distributed in her community, she notes, “We have demonstrated God’s love to families who have felt the Lord working in their lives through our supporters.”
Pray for Compassion’s local church partners. Compassion works with more than 8,500 frontline church partners all over the globe, and each church partner is trained to identify malnutrition and hunger and take immediate action to address it, like Emma did for Eunice and her family. Pray that God would equip these churches and staff members with wisdom, protection, endurance, and the resources to fight hunger and provide food security to children and families in their communities.
To learn more about poverty, hunger, and Compassion’s solutions, visit compassion.com/worldhungerday.
About Compassion International
Compassion International is a Christian child development organization working to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Founded in 1952, Compassion partners with more than 8,500 local churches in 27 program countries to deliver spiritual, economic, social, and physical care to over two million babies, children, and young adults in poverty. Ranked No. 10 in Forbes’ America’s Top Charities List in 2021, Compassion is a founding member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and an accredited charity with the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. For more information, visit compassion.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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