[Day 2] Hunger
Two years ago rageprufrock began the first 14 Valentines and she spoke of how women are praised in song, worshipped in poetry, and derided in culture. She spoke beautifully and elegantly of women, comparing our bodies to luminous flowers. She spoke of the state of women, and the need to remember what we go through, what women throughout the world suffer through.
We are daughters, sisters, mothers, and lovers. If we choose, we can bring life into world with our blood and nourish it with our bodies, but the world that we helped create, that women have bled for and fought for and cried for, doesn't recognize us. Our history is one of abuse. We are not safe.
Women suffer from domestic violence and rape. We are devalued. We are taught that we are lesser. There is still so much work to do, so much for us to accomplish.
It's 2008 and Hillary Rodham Clinton is, as I write this, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in the U.S. Yet, even as this is happening, women are being killed the world over, suffering from infanticide, dying from lack of medical care, killing themselves in the fight to be what society tells them they must. One in three women will still experience sexual assault in her lifetime. So much has changed and so much has stayed the same.
It's 2008 and we've come so far, but there is still more work to be done. We deserve better, and we can do more. We're strong. The next fourteen days is meant to remind us of that. It's our time to take back our bodies.
V can stand for vagina, like Eve Ensler's groundbreaking monologues. V can stand for violence, under whose auspices all women continue to make a home.
V can also stand for victory.
Hunger
Many of us live in a world where food is readily available and relatively inexpensive. We have options on what and where to eat. We can choose to go organic, become vegans, patronize steak houses and fast food establishments, or have a home cooked meal. So few of us ever have to go hungry that we go on diets to restrict our caloric intake, and many of us have to work to avoid dietary related health problems like heart disease. We're lucky. Millions of people aren’t that fortunate.
Over 800 million people around the world are affected by chronic hunger. Between 2001 and 2003, twenty four countries had over 5 million people suffering from malnutrition; India and China top that list with 198 and 150 million respectively. Over 25,000 people die from hunger related causes every single day. That's a million people every 40 days. At that rate, New York City could be depopulated in less than a year.
Statistics show that poverty stricken developing nations are the most likely to have high populations suffering from malnutrition, particularly those in Africa and Southern Asia. The poorest people in any country are women and dependent children, and they are the ones most vulnerable to chronic hunger. In India, up to one fourth of all infants are born underweight, and female infants are nursed and fed less than their male counterparts. This cycle leads to malnourished girls and women who in turn give birth to underweight babies. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are responsible for 80% of food production, and yet are more likely to die from hunger related diseases than men.
Freedom From Hunger is a program that, in one form or another, has been fighting hunger for over sixty years. They bring innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the problem. Their FAQ states, "We don't exclude men: we focus on women... Research (our own and others') confirms that mothers tend to use new income and resources for the immediate benefit of their children, whereas husbands tend to use it for larger household or business purposes. By putting powerful resources - such as knowledge and financial services - directly into the hands and minds of women, we can help the entire family." Their programs not only help to feed hungry people, preventing disease and saving lives, they provide women with opportunities to become educated, self-sufficient, and empowered.