Of EU Commissioner Georgivea and FAO Goodwill Ambassador, Italian
EU COMMISSIONER GEORGIEVA AND FAO GOODWILL AMBASSADOR, ITALIAN FOOTBALL PLAYER ROBERTO BAGGIO SOUND THE ALARM ON THE SAHEL CRISIS WITH THE MATCH DAY AGAINST HUNGER (30 MARCH-2 APRIL) How to win the match against hunger How do you feel when you are hungry? Weak. Tired. Unable to concentrate, study, play or work. So what do you do? You grab something to eat. It sounds so easy, but, one in seven people on this planet doesn’t have anything to grab.... They have no money to buy or to grow food. They suffer from hunger. This is what is now happening in the Sahel region of West Africa (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad). People there are facing the consequences of a combination of drought, poor harvests and soaring food prices. Nearly 16 million people are affected, half of which are at risk, the risk of dying from hunger. Five countries declared states of emergency and asked the world for help. The most vulnerable are the more than one million children, many of them under two years of age. If these children do not get help in time, their mental and physical development will be stunted, even if they physically survive. So, imagine, what about their dreams? Don't you think a child in the Sahel dreams about becoming another Seydou Keita from Mali, John Obi Mikel from Nigeria, or Alain Traore from Burkina Faso? It is true that the EU and the UN are already active in the Sahel region trying to avert the worst. The European Commission has mobilised €123 million in humanitarian aid to help 6 million people escape starvation.
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