Alleviation of Hunger

According to United Nations statistics:

·840 million people are chronically malnourished.

·Of these, 200 million children under the age of five suffer from acute or chronic protein and energy deficiencies.

·Over the past three decades, world food production has increased at a greater rate than population.  However, in the developing world, only one out of five people can get enough food to meet their daily needs.

Only the combined efforts of governments, intergovernmental agencies, and the private sector can break this chain of hunger and poverty.  Rotary International is a global network of 30,000 community-based clubs, with a world membership of 1.2 million.  Each club is composed of men and women, established in their professions, who work as volunteers to improve the quality of life in their home communities and around the world,

 

Rotary's Commitment

Rotary international's Board of Directors has given high priority to the worldwide alleviation of hunger - with special emphasis on projects assisting mothers with children and the aged.  The Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Program of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International provides major grants for international projects that improve health, alleviate hunger, and enhance human and social development.  Rotary defines development as an improvement in the quality of life through an increased competence or capacity that leads to self-reliance.  Through 3-H projects, Rotarians assist those who are working to improve conditions for themselves and their communities.  Those projects designed to alleviate hunger also support food production, preservation, and distribution with particular emphasis in agro-forestry and aquaculture.
 

Background

Historically, one of Rotary's earliest initiatives was the 1919 "Boys and Girls Week" program, sponsored by the Rotary Club of New York, U.S.A.  Rotary clubs' distribution of food to schools foreshadowed later public school breakfast and lunch programs.  During the 1930's, many Rotary clubs distributed food to the indigent in countries affected by widespread unemployment.  In 1945, Rotary clubs contributed to the flow of food to postwar Europe.  Today, Rotary clubs design projects to provide people with the tools and training necessary to produce their own food.

Project Examples

• The Rotary Club of Mombasa, Kenya, Africa works with UNICEF, the Mombasa Municipal Council, and several other organizations to rehabilitate street children, whose numbers are rising.  They established a location for the children to obtain food, clothing, materials for hygiene, and education.  The program will include benefit coupons that citizens can purchase to give to the street children, instead of money.

• Rotary clubs in and around St Louis, Minnesota, USA are working with Feed My Starving Children, an organization to reduce starvation and malnutrition of children five years old and younger.  They work with Rotary clubs in other countries to package the product, as well as sending pallets of food to Haiti, Ukraine, India, and Philippines.

• The Rotary clubs in Marseille, France, have been active in the French food Bank Federation for several years.  Every year in late November, they conduct a food drive in supermarkets.

• A rotary Community Corps project brought water to a chronically dry region of Pakistan.  With the assistance of three Canadian Rotary clubs and a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant, a tube well was installed which provides drinking water for the entire village of Tamma.  The well also irrigates a portion of village land for growing vegetables.

• With the support of area Rotarians, Stephen Sherwood, a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, has educated Honduran farmers about preventing and fighting crop diseases.

• Rotarians in Norway used a Matching Grant to help fund the education of 16 Polish farmers in modern Norwegian farming techniques.