HUNGER / THIRST / HIV / MALARIA VS ART

Artists For Advocacy International is a non-profit organization whose mission is to utilize THE ARTS to educate and advocate for world dilemmas such as world hunger and HIV/AIDS. We are a coalition of artists, art professionals, educators, and facilitators united as creative advocates combining our talents to create awareness and implement solutions to alleviate the distress of the poor and sick. AFAINT uses a variety of art such as spoken word poetry, photography, music, and painting to educate the general public while igniting awareness and social change. Our goal is to allow talented artists to use their artistic gifts for sale and/or awareness for educational and charitable purposes. In return, these artists within the organization host charity events educating and creating awareness about world and social dilemmas. We also partner with other organizations to further their mission by holding fundraisers for them or sharing our arts at their events to further their cause.

History

In the spring of 2006, AFAINT founder, Brandon Plain, joined with Angelia Sanders of Tamani Africa to discover that a free HIV testing center in Kendu Bay, Kenya was not reaching its full potential. Together, they set out to build a new VCT (Volunteer Counseling and Testing Center) by simply using the arts and their love for humanity. By the spring of 2007 with the help of friends, family, and other organizations, the VCT was completed and AFAINT was born. Since then, AFAINT has embarked on numerous endeavors such as building water tanks, feeding programs for impoverished children, and HIV awareness and advocacy campaigns. AFAINT has worked with The AIDS Fund (also known as TACT), Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), pharmaceutical companies and other organizations to advocate for issues ranging from HIV/AIDS to domestic violence.

							
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Malnutrition and hunger due to natural disasters, human conflict, poor infrastructure, lack of agricultural management and most of all APATHY is the number one risk to health worldwide; even greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

Hunger, or the sensation of being hungry, in a general sense is a term that is used to describe organisms who live with the chronic condition of needing food or nourishment. Looking past the obvious symptoms of hunger, an empty stomach, fatigue and dizziness, hunger also leads to deficiencies of micronutrients in the body. This concoction not only impairs physical and mental development, reduces labor productivity and increases premature death but also leaves people susceptible to contract diseases (WHO, 2009).

According to the World Health Organization, freedom from hunger and malnutrition is a basic human right and their alleviation is a fundamental prerequisite for human and national development, thus posing a burden on the developing world. Economists estimate that every child whose physical and mental development is stunted by hunger or malnutrition, stands to lose 5-10 percent of their lifetime earnings. Poverty is the number one cause of malnutrition; the lack of resources for poor people, the unequal distribution of income, the inability to earn a decent wage all contribute to poverty, which leads to hunger and malnutrition. Right now there are 925 million undernourished people on Earth, which is a decline from 2009 figures that state 1.3 billion were undernourished. Just in the United States, 1 in every 6 people are malnourished and 1 in 7 people do not get enough food to live a healthy life.

The number one victims of hunger and malnutrition are children. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges the fact that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality; which is present in half of all starvation cases. Note, that starvation and malnutrition are two different conditions and the reality is that much fewer people are starving than are malnourished. Furthermore, a lack of nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year while magnifying the effects of diseases, such as measles and malaria. With places like Africa suffering numerous cases of these diseases, plague-like hunger and malnutrition create a scenario for even greater cases of child morbidity. Children who do not consume enough daily nourishment suffer approximately 160 days of sickness each year. Africa is not the only country that suffers. Geographically, more than 70 percent of malnourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

One major problem of world hunger is how much food the world WASTES. In the US, it is estimated that 30% or, 100 billion pounds of food gets wasted a year! In US dollars, thats about 48.2 billion worth of food! If only 25% of the100 billion pounds of food were recovered, we could feed 20 million people. This confounding figure would not only feed every hungry child in America but the entire nation of Mozambique in West Africa. What is truly astounding is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations not only insists the world already produces enough food to feed everyone (6 billion people), but could actually feed double the amount of people (12 billion). It is unfortunate to think we could actually feed entire nations with this amount of waste.

One way to solve world hunger would be to help impoverished countries develop new ways to grow food or continue to work on free trade to help these nations increase their GDP. There are millions of people that live in areas of the world that are incapable of producing sufficient food crops or are nearly impossible to irrigate. By developing new methods for maximizing crop growth on substandard land, inhabitants could grow enough food to meet their living needs. Another way to solve world hunger is to improve the food distribution infrastructure. A number of first-world countries have massive surpluses of staple crops, especially wheat, rice and corn. These stockpiles are replenished regularly through subsidized farming. The problem is that poorer countries, which could benefit from these surpluses are often controlled by hostile governments which either refuse offers of food or essentially hold the food hostage at vital distribution points. These are but a few of the dozen ways to conquer the world hunger problem. We just hope this little information given to you is enough to ignite you to get involved.

World Hunger

The problem with world thirst isn't necessarily if there is enough water, but rather if people have access to the water. Today there are nearly one billion people who lack access to safe water.

Around 700 million people in 43 countries suffer today from water scarcity. Water scarcity affects 1 in every 3 people on every continent of the globe. Imbalances between availability and demand, the degradation of groundwater and surface water quality, intersectoral competition, interregional and international conflicts all contribute to water scarcity. The situation is steadily getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial water uses. Surprisingly a person in the U.S. taking a five minute shower uses more water than a single person in a developing country such as sub-saharan Africa uses in an entire day.

By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with water scarcity and two-thirds of the world's population could be living in water-stressed conditions. By 2030, half the world's population will be living in areas of high water scarcity if our climate changes persist. Water shortage in some arid and semi-arid lands will displace between 24 million and 700 million people.

Experts say regions that suffer from water stress serve as catalysts for the spread of disease. Water sanitization is vital. Consuming poor quality water can increase the risk of harmful conditions such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever or dysentery. Many of these conditions can easily be treated with antibiotics or vaccinations and are preventable in the US, however approximately 3.5 million people die each year from water-related illnesses. It is estimated that every 20 seconds a child dies from a disease from drinking unsanitary water (WHO, 2008). It is reported by the FAO that children in poor environments carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any given time from drinking contaminated water. In a global study conducted by the United Nations, unsafe water is responsible for around 80 percent of diseases and 30 percent of deaths in developing countries.

To move forward, water scarcity can be improved by small-scale agricultural improvements such as harvesting of water in shallow wells, drip irrigation for crops, the use of pumps or other technological innovations and increasing access to sanitized water. What you can do now to help the worlds water condition is take shorter showers, turn off unnecessary water when not in use, dispose of harmful chemicals properly so they do not go into our water runoff and speak up about global warming! Without your help we and our preceding generations will continue to suffer from water scarcity and water-related diseases.

World Thirst

-World Health Organization states there are 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria each year resulting in 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths.

-In 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children

-In Uganda alone -- 9,775,318 cases / 6,296 actual deaths

Malaria is known as the 5th leading cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide and the 2nd leading cause of death from infectious diseases in Africa, after HIV/AIDS. Malaria is a serious infectious disease that has the potential to kill off a countrys population. Fortunately the U.S., the country we live in has the technological and medical advances to cure malaria if caught early enough. Malaria is a parasitic disease, which is transmitted by an infected female anopheles mosquito. The mosquito can only carry the disease if it has bitten a malaria-infected human. This female anopheles mosquito not only exists in Africa and in parts of Asia and South America, but in the United States as well! That means if a human is infected with malaria in the United States and a female anopheles mosquito bites just ONE person, our country has a chance of a malaria pandemic!

Once bitten, the malaria parasite enters the bloodstream and it travels to the liver, where the parasite multiplies. At this time, the infected human will show no signs of illness. After a few days, the parasite releases its offspring into the red blood cells and after 48 hours, the red blood cells burst and the infected human develops physical symptoms. Mild symptoms include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, headaches or body aches and severe symptoms include an increase in respiratory rate, enlarged spleen, mild jaundice and an enlarged liver. In general, malaria is a curable disease if diagnosed and treated promptly, however, in 2008, 863 thousand people died from malaria, with 89% of those deaths in Africa.

To prevent malaria, simple precautions such as using bug repellents containing deet and sleeping in mosquito nets treated with permethrin can be used. To TREAT malaria once infected, such drugs as mefloquine, doxycycline and quinine can be taken and if caught early enough, can cure the malaria from the patient. That means, in those 89% of malaria deaths in Africa, 89% of them COULD have been cured if given a simple medication that is so readily available in the United States. BE thankful you live in a country that has such technological and medical advances as we do and the money to produce these basic and cheap medications.

If you would like to donate towards the purchase of treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria, simply make a donation here and make a notation about the Malaria Net Program. 100% of your donation will go to your request!

Malaria