Children and Hunger

A mother holds her malnourished child to be examined by a doctor in Hargeysa, Somalia, May 2006. Photo: IRIN

Over 7 million children die each year from preventable causes, most in developing countries. Preventable causes means that something relatively easy could have been done to save them, such as giving them enough food or immunizing them against childhood diseases such as measles.]

Half the 7 million deaths each year are hunger-related. Hunger-related means that children either starve to death, or that they are so weakened by lack of food that they succumb to infections and diseases that they would survive if they were well-nourished.

World Hunger Education Service. For more information about world hunger, see https://www.worldhunger.org