Baldicer: a Simulation About World Hunger

Name ______Date ______Period ______Baldicer: A Simulation about World Hunger

Baldicer is a simulation activity dealing with world food production, food distribution, and food consumption.

In Baldicer, you are the political leader of a country and are responsible for feeding all of your people. All other players have the same responsibility for feeding the people in their country. Your goal is to feed your people over the course of seven years by acquiring as many baldicers as possible.

Baldicer is played in rounds that represent years of time. Each year has specific periods to follow.

1. Work Period . You can earn baldicers for your people by writing “dig, sweat, push, pull” as many times as possible.

2. Natural/Social Forces Period . You will be given a card about some things that will affect your country.

3. Tally Period . Compute your Tally Sheet. Remember to check all your work carefully, survival depends on it.

4. Planning Period . Complete negotiations with other countries to keep your people alive. This is the time to purchase a Food Machine or a Super Food Machine from the Game Director.

Should your people starve despite your efforts, you will become the World Conscience. It is up to you to let the rest of the world know the facts about world hunger. You will do this by creating informational posters using the World Hunger Facts from your handout. You are not to interfere with the continuation of the Baldicer activity.

Please reflect on the activity by answering the following questions.

1. Your country, ______, started with ______baldicers and ended with ______

2. Did you think you worked hard enough for your people?______Explain. ______

______

3. Based on this activity, make a connection between hard work and the ability of the people in a country to

survive. ______

4. Did you form any coalitions with other countries? ______How did these help or hinder your people’s

survival? ______

______

5. What countries were helpful? ______Which ones were not? ______

Why do you think some were more helpful than others? ______

______

6. What kept people from sharing in Baldicer? ______

7. What keeps countries from sharing in the real world? ______

______

8. Explain the importance of a food machine in this activity. ______

______9. The food machines represent modern technology. Using specific examples, what technology can be used

to end hunger today? ______

______

10. What is absolute poverty? ______

11. Why is it important to understand absolute poverty?______

______

12. How are people in Sioux Falls affected by absolute poverty?______

Give examples.______

13. Using three of these words (absolute poverty, status quo, welfare, industrialized, developing countries)

create a plan that would decrease absolute poverty in our world today.______

______

14. What was your role as the “World Conscience”?______

______

15. Who is the “World Conscience” today?______

16. Compare Baldicer to the reality of solving World Hunger today. ______

______

17. Please explain the strengths and weaknesses of a global economy as they pertain to this activity. ______

______

18. Given the chance to play the simulation again, explain what you would do differently. ______

______

______World Hunger Facts (from Bread for the World www.bread.org)

1. An estimated 1.02 billion people in the world are hungry. 2. Each year, 3 million under-five children die because they are undernourished. 3. Far more children live with undernutrition than die from it. 4. For infants and young children, the effects of chronic malnutrition in the early years of life are largely irreversible. 5. Every day, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds. 6. In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger. 7. A scarcity of food is rarely the cause of hunger. There is more than enough food to feed everyone in the US. 8. In essence, hunger is the most extreme form of poverty, where individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food. 9. Almost 11 percent of U.S. households experience food insecurity. In most cases, parents skip meals so their children have enough to eat. Many families scrape by with enough to avoid real hunger, but still lack the money to buy the healthy, nutritious foods needed for a balanced diet. 10. Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. 11. Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help. 12. In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day. 13. Among this group of poor people, many have problems obtaining adequate, nutritious food for themselves and their families. As a result, 815 million people in the developing world are undernourished. They consume less than the minimum amount of calories essential for sound health and growth. 14. Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation. 15. Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income. 16. Socially, the lack of food erodes relationships and feeds shame so that those most in need of support are often least able to call on it. 17. Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities, according to the World Health Organization. 18. Pregnant women, new mothers who breastfeed infants, and young children are among the most at risk of undernourishment. 19. 153 million children under the age of 5 in the developing world are underweight. Worse yet, 11 million children younger than 5 die every year, more than half from hunger-related causes. 20. Most of these deaths are attributed, not to outright starvation, but to diseases that move in on vulnerable children whose bodies have been weakened by hunger. 21. Every year, more than 20 million low-birth weight babies are born in developing countries. These babies risk dying in infancy, while those who survive often suffer lifelong physical and cognitive disabilities. 22. The four most common childhood illnesses are diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria, and measles. Each of these illnesses is both preventable and treatable. Yet, again, poverty interferes in parents’ ability to access immunizations and medicines. Chronic undernourishment on top of insufficient treatment greatly increases a child’s risk of death. 23. Go to the World Food Programme website and click on either "Counting the Hungry" or "Interactive Hunger Map" for presentations on hunger and poverty around the world.