The Result of Inspiration from GEAR

Inspiration and learning from GEAR has led PAF-KIET students to generate employment (in most projects) or solve one of the most critical problem for poor from the society.

In the beginning, the support from GEAR enabled around 30 students to help 6 families to stand on their feet. This beginning was a trigger point of a chain reaction which spurred in the semesters which followed. The push which GEAR provided, is still sustainable, just like it’s on-ground-activities, Alhamdolillah.

Till now 53 families have been helped, by the grace of Allah SWT, with an amount of Rs. 630,000/- (approx), during the course of 4 semester. Most of these projects are related with generation of source of self-employment for the needy.

The entire experience is transforming the lives of not only poor families but also changing the mindset of the students as they realize their the true problems faced by the poverty struck population. Furthermore they realizes that being among the economically stable ones what responsibilities toward society they hold and value of the psychological rewards which are reaped in the process of creating solutions of the social ills, is also realized.

The success so far has sparked the management to involve all departments in the process of involving students to solve the problems of the society. In the forth coming semester this project will be done by other departments at PAFKIET as well, subsequently increasing the quantum of impact by many time.

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UN: 25,000 people die of hunger every day

And we say terrorism is the biggest threat to the world …

GLOBAL HUNGER

• 1.02 billion people do not have enough to eat – more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union;
  (Source: FAO news release, 19 June 2009)
• The number of undernourished people in the world increased by 75 million in 2007 and 40 million in 2008, largely due to higher food prices;
  (Source: FAO news release, 9 Dec 2008)
• 907 million people in developing countries alone are hungry;
  (Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2008)
• Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people;
  (Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2008)
• More than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women;
  (Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2006)
• 65 percent  of the world’s hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
  (Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2008)

CHILD HUNGER

• Every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes;
  (Source: State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2004)
• More than 70 percent of the world’s 146 million underweight children under age five years live in just 10 countries, with more than 50 per cent located in South Asia alone;
  (Source: Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition, UNICEF, 2006)
• 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths;
  (Source: The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF, 2007)
• The cost of undernutrition to national economic development is estimated at US$20-30 billion per annum;
  (Source: Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition, UNICEF, 2006)
• One out of four children – roughly 146 million – in developing countries are underweight;
  (Source: The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF, 2007)
• Every year WFP feeds more than 20 million children in school feeding programmes in some 70 countries. In 2008, WFP fed a record 23 million children.
  (Source: WFP School Feeding Unit)

MALNUTRITION

• It is estimated that 684,000 child deaths worldwide could be prevented by increasing access to vitamin A and zinc
  (Source: WFP Annual Report 2007)
• Undernutrition contributes to 53 percent of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries. This means that one child dies every six seconds from malnutrition and related causes.
  (Source: Under five deaths by cause, UNICEF, 2006)
• Lack of Vitamin A kills a million infants a year
  (Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, UNICEF)
• Iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of malnutrition worldwide, affecting an estimated 2 billion people.6 Eradicating iron deficiency can improve national productivity levels by as much as 20 percent.
  (Source: World Health Organization, WHO Global Database on Anaemia)
• Iron deficiency is impairing the mental development of 40-60 percent children in developing countries
  (Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF)
• Vitamin A deficiency affects approximately 25 percent of the developing world’s pre-schoolers. It is associated with blindness, susceptibility to disease and higher mortality rates. It leads to the death of approximately 1-3 million children each year.
  (Source: UN Standing Committee on Nutrition. World Nutrition Situation 5th report. 2005)
• Iodine deficiency is the greatest single cause of mental retardation and brain damage. Worldwide, 1.9 billion people are at risk of iodine deficiency, which can easily be prevented by adding iodine to salt
  (Source:  UN Standing Committee on Nutrition. World Nutrition Situation 5th report. 2005)
• WFP-supported deworming reached 10 million children in 2007
  (Source: WFP Annual Performance Report 2007)

FOOD & HIV/AIDS

• In the countries most heavily affected, HIV has reduced life expectancy by more than 20 years, slowed economic growth, and deepened household poverty.
  (Source: 2008 UNAIDS Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic)
• In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the epidemic has orphaned nearly 12 million children aged under 18 years.
  (Source: 2008 UNAIDS Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic).
• WFP and UNAIDS project that it will cost on average US $0.70 cents per day to nutritionally support an AIDS patient and his/her family.
  (Source: Cost of Nutritional Support for HIV/AIDS Projects, WFP, July 2008)
• Assistance for orphans and vulnerable children is estimated at US$0.31 per day.
  (Source: Cost of Nutritional Support for HIV/AIDS Projects, WFP, July 2008)

AID SPENDING

• In a 1970 UN Resolution, most industrialised nations committed themselves to tackling global poverty by spending 0.7 percent of their national incomes on international aid by 1975. Only Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark regularly meet his target
  (Source: DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) facts map, 2006-2007)
• The 22 member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, the world’s major donors, provided USD 103.9 billion in aid in 2006 – down by 5.1 percent from 2005
  (Source: OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2007)
• The largest donors were the United States (US$24 billion), Japan (US$18 billion), the United Kingdom (US$13 billion), Germany and France (US$12 billion each), the Netherlands (nearly US$6 billion), Spain and Italy (just over US$4 billion each) representing 80 percent of the total
  (Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2007)

Help End World Hunger

More than one billion people – approximately 1/6 of the world’s population are hungry. And every day nearly 16,000 children die from hunger and related causes. We have the resources to feed the world. We just need the will. Learn about global hunger and what you can do to help.

World Hunger Facts

• 1.02 billion people in the world are hungry.

  UN Food and Agriculture Organization

• 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day.

  “World Development Indicators 2007.” The World Bank.

• 27 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely underweight in the developing world.

  “State of the World’s Children 2007.”UNICEF.

• Nearly one in three people die prematurely or have disabilities due to poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies.

  “Malnutrition.” World Health Organization (WHO)

• One in nearly seven people do not get enough food to be healthy, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide.

  UN World Food Programme

The Cost to End World Hunger

It’s less than 1%

The United Nations has estimated the cost of ending world hunger at about $195 billion a year. Twenty-two countries have pledged to donate this money by contributing 0.7% — less than 1% — of national income to international aid, but the goal has yet to be reached. Five countries have already met the goal, while others are on target to meet it in a few years. Some, including the U.S., are lagging. If you’d like to encourage US lawmakers to work harder to donate the necessary funds, visit this page at Poverty.com and print a letter that you can send to your congressional represenatives, or use the letter as an example for your customized letter.

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