The song, “We Are the World,” was performed by a hall-of-fame group of singers and musicians. It was created to raise funds for children starving in Ethiopia due to famine. Now, forty years later, children’s hunger has spread throughout Africa.
Childhood hunger in Africa leads to malnutrition, stunted growth, and even death. Causes for malnourishment include political conflict, extreme weather events, poverty, and instability. In Kenya alone, 3.6 million children are orphaned, and most don’t know if they will have anything to eat today.
Kare for Kids in Africa (K4K) was founded in 2010 once we recognized the need and developed a plan. We started by feeding 300 children and are now feeding over 15,000. At this time, we are only feeding in Kenya, but we hope to expand this program to Malawi next, followed by Burundi and Rwanda.
Hunger contributes to 45% of all child deaths across Africa.
Malnourishment occurs when a person’s intake of vitamins and minerals is insufficient for proper development, growth, and health. This issue is so severe in Africa that 59 million hungry children are considered stunted.
A full 90% of African children do not meet the criteria for a minimum acceptable diet as set by the World Health Organization. Hunger contributes to 45% of all child deaths across Africa.
As you can see the challenge is overwhelming when you look at the big numbers. We prefer to look at these individual kid’s faces and know we are feeding 17,000+ of them weekly.
