"Some 15 million children die each year . They die very quietly; one hears very little about them; they come from the world's poorest families, who themselves are the weakest and most powerless members of those powerless families . Just last month . there was this terrible earthquake in Algeria where 12,000 people died that made the front page of every paper, yet some 35,000 small children died that same day needlessly from the silent emergency "almost triple that, but it did not make the headlines.""(Swarns, The New York Times) Most people think of hunger as something "out there- "distant, vague, and undefined. Yet it takes forms, each with different causes, effects, and treatments. These different forms are very evident throughout the regions of Southern Africa, where hunger is the prominent issue of concern.
The most non-complex and widespread manifestation of hunger today "and the least recognized "is chronic under nutrition. This specific type of hunger means that over a long period of time an individual consumes fewer calories and less protein than the body needs. Due to the fact that this disease is chronic makes it often unobserved, and continuous. This type of living is almost common in Southern Africa because a substantial amount of the population suffers from this condition. The impact this issue has had on the people is incalculable. The person will ultimately become too weakened to resist diseases, work productively, or think clearly. It affects the total mind, body, and soul of the individual. As stated previously, the lethargy and ill health that result from under nutrition often seem the normal way of life for the immense population in this particular region (www.worldhunger.org). This particular illness has affected the world more than anyone would ever have imagined; it has taken the lives of 13-18 million people each year. .
More than 60 percent of the population in Zimbabwe's western region of Hwange requires food relief.