AP/Washington Post Examines How Hunger Crisis Affects Women and Girls
The AP/Washington Post on Saturday examined how increasing rates of hunger are affecting women around the world. According to U.N. estimates, 60% of the nearly 1 billion undernourished people are women and girls. In addition, women do up to 80 percent of the farming in poor countries, according to researchers "[a]nd, with food and fertilizer prices rising, and AIDS and the global financial meltdown taking their toll, women are straining under growing responsibilities," writes the AP/Washington Post.
Catherine Bertini, a farming specialist with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation explains that women "are always hardest hit," adding, that a woman "feeds her husband, and then she feeds her children, and then she feeds herself if there's anything left." The AP/Washington Post reports on the "far-reaching" consequences that food shortages can have on a society: "[Women] may not be there for their children at all, as a poorly fed woman is more likely to die in childbirth. And their babies are also more likely to grow up physically and mentally stunted. It's a vicious circle that deepens misery in Africa and other lands of hunger" (Bryson, AP/Washington Post, 4/25).
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