'400 mn children still hungry on World Food Day'

New Delhi, Oct 15: On the occasion of World Food Day tomorrow, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), James Morris has appealed to the developed world to give a fairer chance to the 400 million hungry children globally, many of whom are still blighted by malnutrition in the first few months after being born.

''The Official Development Assistance has been rising steadily for several years and now tops 100 billion US dollars. We can afford to help, but we need to develop a food first policy, poverty cannot be eliminated until hunger and malnutrition are laid to rest.

And one way to start would be to prevent hunger from cheating children of hope,'' Mr Morris said.

The impact of hunger and malnutrition is often severe for the children. A new research has shown that the rapid development of brain during early months and years of life is crucial and influences learning, behaviour and health throughout the life due to the hunger, according to a WFP release received from Rome.

It negatively affects the brain development of the children and bleak their chances of success later in the life, the release added.

''Given that 70 per cent of our brain development occurs in the first two years of lives, malnutrition in early childhood can have a devastating effect,'' the WFP Executive Director said and added that ''even before they can walk and talk, these kids are already behind the curve.'' Citing a research in Chile, he said the children who suffered from malnutrition before the age of two tend to have smaller and less-developed brains with lower Intelligence Quotients (IQs) than those who were well-nourished.

Other studies show that iron deficiency among the children of under can be associated with poor performance once they reach school age. Similarly, stunted children can lose years of education as they join school late.

''The conclusions we can draw from this is the importance of integrating food for education programmes and better school-feeding besides development interventions to achieve the greatest nutritional impact on the children,'' Mr Morris said adding ''these interventions need to start even before the child is born''.

The Executive Director criticised educational opportunities and technology at hand to help children in the developed world as only limited resources are available to boost the child development in the world's poorest corners.

In countries like Niger, Chad or Bangladesh, millions of children do not go to school at all as their households need every hand to make both ends meet, he added.

''There is more than enough food in the world. For example in Italy, once the population's nutritional requirements are met, there would be sufficient food available for all the under-nourished people in Ethiopia. In France, the ''extra'' could feed the hungry of the Democratic Republic of Congo, while in the United States, it could cover all the hungry in Africa,'' he said.

There is nothing wrong in seeking the best for your own children -- it would be unnatural to wish otherwise, Mr Morris said and urged that ''the next time you upgrade your child's laptop or book those extra tution sessions, spare a thought for the millions of those children whose fingers could never touch a keyboard. They would be lucky if they learned to read and write or do basic arithmetic.''

UNI