More than 500,000 American teens nationwide will take part February 23 in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine, forsaking food for 30 hours to get a taste of what the world’s poorest children and families face everyday.
This is World Vision’s 16th annual 30 Hour Famine event. Last year it raised $11.6 million; this year’s goal is $12 million.
According to a new United Nations food report, hunger and malnutrition will claim 18,000 lives – each day. When the impact of preventable, hunger-related diseases is added in, that number jumps dramatically – to 29,000 children a day because malnutrition makes children more susceptible to disease.
The World Food Programme’s James Morris tells the Associated Press, ‘Today, 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children; 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition. This is a shameful fact — a terrible indictment of the world in 2007, and it’s an issue that needs to be solved.’
The 30 Hour Famine participants will gather, representing schools, churches, youth and civic organizations and consume only water and fruit juices focusing on activities like food drives, serving in soup kitchens, or assisting in homeless shelters. Prior to this weekend’s event, teens raised funds by explaining that $30 a month – just $1 a day – can feed and care for a child for 30 days. The funds they raised will help feed and care for children in poverty-afflicted countries around the globe.
‘The 30 Hour Famine has a lasting impact, not just on the children receiving food, care and education, but on participants who view their own potential to affect change very differently afterward,’ said Debbie Diederich, national director of the World Vision 30 Hour Famine. ‘Since 1992, 30 Hour Famine has raised more than $80 million, representing countless saved lives.’
