PRIORITIES FOR ACTION - ENDING HIDDEN HUNGER

Filipino child is given vitamin supplement

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Just as disease needlessly causes disability, so too does 'Hidden Hunger', specifically the absence of iodine, vitamin A and iron from the diet. Malnutrition affects 800 million people globally and most live in developing countries. It is often a disease of poverty.

Lack of iodine, the world's leading cause of preventable brain damage, can also lead to stunted growth and developmental handicap. More than 1,500 million people live in iodine-deficient environments, typically inland and mountainous regions, often where top soil has been washed away by flash flooding due to deforestation.

Shortage of vitamin A is the most common cause of irreversible sight loss in children, and exposes them to disabling disease. It is estimated that half of all children who become blind due to vitamin A deficiency will die within 12 months of losing their sight.

Anaemia is caused by iron deficiency. It can result in serious problems for pregnant mothers and impair their children and is an associated cause in half the maternal deaths in developing countries.

The tragedy is, only tiny traces of these micronutrients are needed to protect people. Yet the long-term remedy, putting the missing micronutrient or vitamins back into the food chain, is simple and cost-effective through, for example, iodising salt, fortifying flour or encouraging people to eat vitamin and mineral rich foods such as fruit and vegetables. In the short-term, supplements protect people in deficient areas.

Bangladeshi Couple Growing Vegetables In Bangladesh, Kenya, The Philippines and here in the UK, home gardens provide a free and easily accessible source of nutritious fruit and vegetables for whole families. Any surplus produce can be sold to generate income. In one small area of Bangladesh, child blindness has dropped by 90% as children now eat Vitamin A rich spinach leaves with their rice.

Supplementing staple foodstuffs is also an excellent way to get nutrients into diets. In The Philippines, IMPACT’s advocacy resulted in it becoming mandatory to iodise salt. School bakeries produce bread rolls made with flour that has been fortified with iron and vitamin A. Early indications show that eating these rolls can result in a 50% reduction in deficiency within months which, in turn, will reduce many disabilities. Eating the bread rolls also assuages hunger.

Cooking class in the UK In the UK, our ‘Neighbourhood Healthwatch’ scheme is designed to address malnutrition and its consequences, for example heart disease, diabetes and obesity – all of which can lead to disability. ‘Get Cooking’ clubs led by trained volunteers teach people how to produce healthy meals on a low budget and gardening plots enable them to grow and consume fruit and vegetables. A food co-operative takes low-cost fresh produce into the heart of communities.

The pilot project is currently running in Mid Sussex and has become an important part of the local Primary Care Trust’s health promotion work. We plan to roll it out to other areas as resources become available.

The Individual IMPACT

Mr. Kamali is 30 and never went to school. He and his family in Nepal struggled to survive, eating mainly rice and bread. Now he has learned to grow vegetables on a small plot and is providing enough nutritious food for his extended family of eleven.

£20 would establish another home garden in a developing community

£20 would establish another home garden to prevent micronutrient malnutrition

£2,306 would set up a school bakery in The Philippines to produce fortified bread rolls