HUNGER IN EAST TIMOR

Less than 600km from Australia, there are children who are so chronically malnourished that more than half of them have stunted growth. They live in East Timor, an hour’s flight from Darwin. They are our closest neighbours, and they are hungry.

Why are kids in East Timor going hungry?

Most East Timorese live in rural areas, farming small plots of land that do not produce enough food to feed a family. The food they do have does not provide adequate nutrition for a balanced diet, so children become malnourished.

Poor harvests, outdated farming technology, a lack of infrastructure like roads and electricity, and a lack of jobs outside of subsistence farming means it’s hard for people to make money, and the little they do make is mostly spent on food.

In between harvests, food stocks run low and families eat less – often not even two meals a day. This is called the “hungry season”. During this time, many East Timorese survive by eating a dish called “akar”. Akar is made from the trunk of a sago palm tree, ground up and mixed with water, then cooked over a fire.

GLOBAL HUNGER

Right now, there are 925 million chronically
hungry people in the world...

... what’s worse is that the hungry people we are talking about live right on our doorstep - Asia and the pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two-thirds of the world’s hungry people.

The good news, though, is that we’re making progress. For the first time in 15 years, the number of undernourished people in the world has fallen.

Last year there were 1.02 billion people in the world who did not have enough to eat; this year that number is 925 million. However, that still leaves nearly a billion people who go to bed hungry every night.

Do something real to fight chronic hunger… do the 40 Hour Famine.

What does hunger look like?

Being malnourished doesn’t just mean you feel hungry; children who are poorly nourished often suffer from wasting (low weight for height) and stunted growth (low height for age).

Stunting is usually caused by a chronic lack of protein and micronutrients in early life, including iron and essential vitamins, and is prevalent in populations such as East Timor’s, where malnutrition is widespread. Stunting can permanently harm a child’s development and their ability to learn.

In East Timor, 54% of children under five suffer from stunted growth.

Sources: UNICEF; United Nations World Food Programme

MEET ABITO ...IN EAST TIMOR

Abito is seven. His favourite thing to do is play with his slingshot. It’s hungry season in East Timor, and there is not much food to eat until the next harvest. So for now Abito’s family eats nothing but sago trees.

They grind up the trunk of a sago palm tree and mix it with water to make a kind of paste, which they cook and eat. They call it akar. Eating akar every day fills him up, but it doesn’t provide Abito with enough nutrients for a balanced diet – Abito says he runs out of energy when he only has akar to eat.

It’s hard being a kid when you have to eat sago trees just to survive.

IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE ABITO...

MEET LILY ...IN EAST TIMOR

Lily is seven. She lives with her grandmother in a hut on the side of a mountain. Her only toy is the plastic water bottle that she uses to water the garden.

Lily’s grandmother would like to send her to school, but she can’t afford it, so instead Lily spends her days doing chores like collecting water.

In the dry season she and her grandmother grow vegetables and sell mustard leaves. Through the rainy season, though, they have no vegetables to sell and no money. There’s not enough food at the moment – it’s the hungry season and Lily’s grandmother is rationing their food so they make it through to the next harvest.