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World OF Hunger Is a Staggering Problem Over a billion people have to live on $1 a day or less. Families in such extreme poverty must go without the food they need -- every day of their lives. A billion malnourished people -- mostly women and children -- are losing their health and lives, their potential for prosperity, and their hope for a better future. · More than 800 million people know what it's like to go to bed hungry; most of them women and children. · Hunger and poverty claim 25,000 lives every day. · 2 million babies a year are so weak from hunger that they die when they get a bad case of diarrhea. · Poor families spend over 70% of their income on food. (An average American family spends just over 10%). · 226 million children are stunted physically and mentally from malnutrition, wrecking their chances for a good education and productive future.    Too little food for too many mouths. So the story goes: Africa stays poor because of its high rate of population growth. Both fact and fiction lurk hero. Africa does have the highest birth rate in the world - each African woman (on average) gives birth to a robust 6.6 babies. Forty-seven African children are born for every thousand people. Far ahead of Asia with thirty or Latin American with thirty-two. At this rate Nigeria’s one hundred million people will double by the turn of the century. For the first time in the history of this continent Africa’s governments are beginning to worry that population may outstrip food supplies. Yet most African countries have smaller populations than comparably sized countries in Europe and Asia. There are only 18 Africans per square kilometer compared to more than 50 Europeans and 87 in South Asia. Indeed, Africa has traditionally been regarded as one of the world’s most sparsely populated regions. Angola, for example, 15 twice as big as France with only a fifth the population. Angola is also rich in natural resources and needs many hands to help in their development. While Africa may not be overpopulated it is certainly poor. And poverty can explain more about a high birth rate than the birth rate can about poverty. Poor people need children in order to help them survive - children to work in the fields, herd cattle, carry water and gather firewood. Children can also look after ageing parents for whom an old age pension isn’t even a dream. Children simply mean survival. But children born to poor families are often undernourished or susceptible to disease. In Africa 127 out of every thousand babies never live until their first birthday. So a mother may have to have several children in order to ensure the survival of one. Until African mothers can be a lot surer about their babies’ chances of living it is unlikely that they will be convinced by arguments in favour of family planning. West Africa's child slave trade  childre are sold by parents and taken to neighbouring countries. CANCER In South Africa 1500 new cases of cancer amongst children are diagnosed every year. Owing to earlier methods of detection, improved medication and more effective treatment methods, many more children’s lives are saved than was the case thirty years ago.
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Latest page update: made by
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, Dec 7 2006, 5:27 AM EST
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