The Hunger Project
By: Rishi and Rohan
Intro to The Hunger Project
According to The Hunger Project website it states, “One in three people in Africa suffer from hunger.” (Our Work). This is just Africa. Think of the whole world. Millions of people are dying of hunger. There is one popular charity that seeks to end world hunger, The Hunger Project. They have come a long way to their position right now. Also, they have helped, in many ways, thousands of communities. Lastly, they are very effective in accomplishing their goals. They believe that they will end world hunger by 2030.
Mission Statement
"Founded in 1977, The Hunger Project is a global, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, The Hunger Project empowers people to lead lives of their own basic needs and build better futures for their children. The Hunger Project carries out its mission through three essential activities: mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self reliance, empowering women as key change agents, and forging effective partnerships with local government."
What is the issue/cause that your charity supports?
The Hunger Project, or THP, works on the sustainable end of world hunger. In America alone, 31 million kids’ parents have a low income. This leads to not having food on the table on a consistent basis. Just imagine millions of kids not having any food to eat. Even though this is a very big number, it is nothing compared to what Africa is going through. 1 in 3 or approximately 239 million people suffered from hunger in Africa in 2010. More than a quarter of Africa’s population is starving. This is where The Hunger Project can help out. On The Hunger Project website it states.” We firmly believe that the end of world hunger is achievable by 2030.”(“Our Work”) Many people take advantage of all the food they have and forget how many people are starving throughout the world.
Famine can be caused by two reasons. One of the reasons is due to natural events. These include drought, flooding, temperature and natural disasters. When you have a drought, it means you have a lack of water and this leads to the crops not being able to survive. On the other hand, flooding is when there is too much water and the plants drown. If the temperature suddenly drops or increases by a major amount, the crops will not be able to adapt so quickly and they will die off. Natural disasters are the worst because they do the most damage and farmers are forced to start from scratch again. Another reason for hunger is human interference. This includes overpopulation and wars. Usually, when there is a war, it wipes out all the crops and it also costs a lot of money. The government will have to ask for more tax money to repay everything. This will lead to families not having enough money which will lead to not having food. Overpopulation is also a major problem. In the Compton’s encyclopedia it states,”9-13 million people died of starvation in China .”(“Hunger and Famine pg. 355”) This was because of overpopulation. The Hunger project goes to areas devastated without food and does the best they can to help them.
Places Where The Hunger Project has helped out
How did the organization begin and grow into what it is now?
The Hunger Project, founded by Robert W. Fuller, Werner Erhard, and John Denver, started off as a very small organization to help end hunger. They used to just ask for donations of money and food and then send them to parts of the world that needed it. They were pretty much like any other charitable organization for hunger. The Hunger Project was founded in 1977 and had to get to work right away. On The Quest to World Hunger book it states,” The Hunger Project played major roles in Cambodia, Somalia, and other parts of Africa.” Many parts of Africa were in a crisis because they could not grow crops. This was mainly because of the weather and climate. Many organizations including The Hunger Project kept donating food to Africa but it was not working. There was not enough food to go around for everybody.This was when The Hunger Project changed what they were all about.
The Hunger Project realized that giving back food to people in need could only last so long. They changed their whole program because of this. They started to help out with growing crops and donating machines to the people in Africa to help them farm easier. This was a much more efficient way to help end hunger. On The Hunger Project website it states,” Our work reaches 19.6 million people in 17000 communities worldwide.”(“Our Work”) This includes about 22 countries. Some of these are Africa, Latin America, and some parts of Asia. As an organization that started to prevent hunger in Africa, they are now helping out worldwide.What Does Your chosen charity do for the community?
The Hunger Project has multiple ways of helping the communities in Latin America, Africa, and some parts of Asia. They have three major goals that they are accomplishing. In Charity Navigator, the website, it states in the mission statement, “...mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents, and forging effective partnerships with local government.” In The Hunger Project website, thp.org, it stated that just providing food aid isn’t enough. They help the agriculture and benefit the community. They give more resources to make that community much better than it was. The Hunger Project helps make a sustainable food source. In The Hunger Project website, in (Our Work) it states, “...Epicenter Strategy mobilizes clusters or rural villages in to ‘epicenters,’ which band together 5,000-15,000 people to carry out community-led integrated strategies to meet basic needs.” This is one way THP helps the community.
Another way that THP helps the community is supporting women and girls. THP supports women by encouraging them to run for local government. They are also improving education for girls. THP mobilizes local “animators.” These leaders carry out strategies to improve the community. They teach some classes for girls and organize schools for them too. They get most of the supplies from THP charity. Women are supported to join epicenters too. THP also makes sure women have a say in the community. More women are volunteering which is improving their community. This is another way THP helps the community.
How effective is this charity in accomplishing its goals?
The Hunger Project is very effective in accomplishing its goals. They have helped many communities. THP believes that education for girls and women support is vital to stop world hunger. In The Hunger Project video, on youtube, it states that several communities have improved education for girls and improved women support. Also, more women are volunteering in the government, education, and agriculture. So, incomes are increasing. Agriculture productivity is being improved which is improving the economy. When the economy is improved, food prices go down and eventually make it affordable for everyone. Many communities’ economies have improved, and many communities’ food prices have decreased. This shows how effective THP is in accomplishing its goals.
Communities are advancing and improving a lot. This is more steps closer to destroying world hunger. In THP video, on youtube, it states, “Today and each day 17,000 fewer children are dying.” It also states, “ The share of people living in poverty has been cut in half since 1990.” In addition to that, in The Hunger Project’s website it states that THP has helped 17,000 communities throughout Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. They are still helping several other communities. THP is very effective in accomplishing its goals because of its division of their money. The amount of money they use is $14,637,711. In Charity Navigator it states, in the chart section, that 81% of the total amount goes to the program. This is $11,851,260 and it is used to benefit and improve communities. Ten point five percent of the total amount goes for fundraising, and that is $1,538,427. Only 8.5 percent goes to the employees. Only $1,248,024 is used to pay the employees. On Charity Navigator, in the “Overall” section, The Hunger Project’s rating out of 100 was 94.27/100, and it got 4/4 stars. This proves that The Hunger Project is very effective in accomplishing its goals.
Works Cited
"Hunger and Famine." Compton's. H ed. 2010. Print.
Kjelle, Marylou Morano. The Quest to End World Hunger. Hoclcession: Mitchell Lane, 2015. Print.
Merino, Noël. Poverty. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
Scanlan, Stephen. "The Scarcity Fallacy." n.d.: 34-39. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
"The Hunger Project." Charity Navigator. Charity Navigator, 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
The Hunger Project. "Our Work." The Hunger Project. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
The Hunger Project. The Hunger Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/>.