Majorie is a little girl that lives in a small shack slapped together of mud and dirt that lies in the center of a 2-mile radius in a compound of 100,000 others in Ndola, Zambia. She grew up without knowing her father, and lives with her mother and grandmother, along with her 5 siblings. Many of her friends would call her blessed, for being able to live with most of her loving family.
When I was in 12th grade, I attended a fundraising dinner for an organization that was just in the beginning stages of supporting the creation of two local schools in Ndola, Zambia. I had a joined a team of 17 people going to Ndola in a few months to help update the school buildings, to reach out to the kids and help train teachers. I yearned to gain exposure to the world and help the kids and schools in any way I could.
Before the dinner began, I was searching through the stacks of sponsorship cards, looking at profiles of little kids that were accepted into the school but hadn’t found someone to sponsor their tuition yet. All of a sudden, Majorie’s name and picture flashed in front of me, and I knew I wanted her to be mine. She had hints of orange in her hair, a pink shirt and headband, wearing no shoes. I instantly grabbed her card and signed up to sponsor her.
A few months later, I was on the bus to visit Majorie’s school, beaming with excitement to meet my little girl face to face. When we reached the school, I scanned through all the crowds of little children multiple times, looking for my little girl. I finally walked up to the teacher and asked, “Which one is Majorie?”
“Majorie? Oh. She has not been here for weeks,” the teacher said.
A shock looked fell over my face, “Do you know where she is?”
“She has Malaria.”
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Hunger and disease plague most countries in the world to some degree. However in developing countries like Zambia, not solely does hunger impact adults and children, but deadly diseases, like Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids are a part of every day life where hunger, poverty, disease and death interact in a vicious cycle. According to a peer-reviewed article of Global Poverty, Hunger, Death and Disease published in the International Journal of Economics, the percentage of world hunger has actually decreased in the recent years. Still, 1.02 billion people worldwide are malnourished.
Zambia is a prime example of the vicious cycle of hunger, poverty, disease and death in action. In Zambia, the life-expectancy is 39.2 years. Most adults in the United States are doubling this life expectancy. Many people in Zambia die everyday of diseases we would find easily preventable- diarrhea, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Pneumonia.
However, the people that become statistics in countries like Zambia are not a loss cause. These statistics and problems are staggering, but these problems only become debilitating when we refuse to do anything about them. These are massive problems, yes. But are they unsolvable or a loss cause? Absolutely not. Just ask Majorie.
When Majorie was just beginning to be sponsored, she had orange hair from malnutrition. A few months after attending school, she got malaria. Thankfully, however, she had medical insurance was included as part of her sponsorship tuition at school, and she was able to get medicine to treat her disease. She has been attending school for 5 years, and in the letters she sends me, she tells me of how she desires to become a nurse when she’s older so that she can give back and help others.
There are hundreds of adults and children in the developing world just like Majorie that have the ability to rise above the statistic when given the right support and opportunity. People that are able must help in ways they can, by contributing their time or finances to help others that have less. More world-wide organizations need to be started, more schools must be developed and more health professionals must get on board to aid others with their resources and knowledge. As many of us will become nutrition professionals, we have a unique position with our knowledge to be able to directly influence hunger: one of the steps in this vicious cycle. Whether we are helping hungry people in the United States or people in a country half way across the world, we have the knowledge and responsibility to help those when they are not able to help themselves.
From getting to know Majorie and others just like her, I know that world hunger, poverty, disease and death will always be present. Not every person will escape the vicious cycle, but it is not naive for us to hope we can help lower this number, one by one.
“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”
-Margaret Mead
Article: Global poverty, hunger, death, and disease by O’Boyle, Edward
; O’Boyle, Meade. International Journal of Social Economics
39.1/2 (2012): 4-17
URL: http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/916981924?accountid=13158