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Posts tagged with: tanzania

Frank and Mwajuma (and some bloke called Dave)

This blog is one of several published in real time during the live event “nutrition for growth; beating hunger through business and science”. The rest of the blogs can be found by clicking the links at the bottom of the page. Some of those organisations supporting this movement are include The IF campaignThe ONE campaign DFID

 

A heartfelt personal account of what if feels like to be hungry by young Tanzanian’s Frank and Mwajuma.

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You can see from the picture that Frank is of slight build. He is small for his age (16) and slenderly built.

You don’t get big and strong he says, without good food. Stunted growth is a real thing. It affects many many people the world over.

The “senior cabinet minister” called to the podium is DAVE!

 

PM

Mr Cameron is talking about a 165 MILLION children who by the age of 2 have already been so badly malnourished, that they will never achieve their full expected height or weight.

 

DC says there are 3 questions?

 

1. Does aid really work?

Yes it does – we are seeing the fastest redcution in poverty in history. Child deaths are down by half and 4 million lives saved by vaccination. That’s a resounding YES, but there are still too many dying. We cannot stop here.

2. Why does the UK always have to be out in front when it comes to aid?

Dave says its because of the way the British people are, and how we respond when we hear of disaster and poverty. It says something about our standing in the world. But its not just about our hearts, its our heads too. If we invest in countries before they get broken, we might not end of dealing with the problems afterwards. We are one of few countries who agree to spend 0.7% on development. If we keep doing this we can help 37 MILLION children. Its less than 1 pence a day for us. Its a good investment.

 

3. The problems are never solved, why does it just go on and on?

We have earned the right to say we should do things differently. Different in business, different in science. Harvesting power of enterprise and for science, harnessing the power of innovation – see the sweet potato* that has been engineered to provide Vitamin A.

*more on the sweet potato coming soon!

 

Bye bye Dave!

 

A PDF of the executive summary can be viewed HERE

 

Why the time to act is now: https://wp.me/p3scvU-lT

 

Mark Walport: https://wp.me/p3scvU-lR

 

Ireland remembers: https://wp.me/p3scvU-lN

 

Malawi: https://wp.me/p3scvU-lK

 

It’s not difficult to make a difference: https://wp.me/p3scvU-lK

 

Some bloke called Dave https://wp.me/p3scvU-lr

 

Unicef’s 1000 Days https://wp.me/p3scvU-lm

 

Can science end starvation? https://wp.me/p3scvU-lg