University College Students Consider World Hunger Issues

Staff and students of St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, recently enjoyed a thought provoking morning considering the issues of world hunger during a conference with representatives from Action Against Hunger (ACF International) Samuel Hauenstein, Senior Policy Advisor, Saul Guerrero, Head of Technical Development and Candice Memerty, Director of Human Resources at ACF International gave delegates a superb insight into to the work of the charity, which has more than 5,200 employees based in 45 countries, helping over seven million people annually. Samuel gave a powerful and thought provoking talk about the role people can play in raising the emotional comprehension of other people about the plight of the 55 million voiceless children under five who do not get enough food and the 3.5 million who die each year from hunger. He described the torturous decisions that mothers are forced to make on a daily basis about which of their children to feed when there is simply not enough food for them all. This was followed by a presentation from Saul Guerrero who discussed two solutions to severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The first is the use of the Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tapes, which are simple colour coded measuring tapes that can be used to screen children for selection to receive emergency nutritional support. Each band has coloured zones relating to the nutritional status of the child. Children with a MUAC in the red zone are at a very high risk of death, or long-term health and development problems if left untreated. The second solution was a pouch of ‘Plumpy Nut’, a Ready to Use Theraputic Food (RUTF), based on peanut paste and packed with energy, protein and other nutrients. With no water, heating or preparation required, RUTFs avoid all the major inconvenience and contamination risks associated with therapeutic milk-based products, which have been the basis of treatment in the past. It means that the treatment of SAM can now take place in the community rather than at in-patient feeding centres, increasing the capacity to treat, and at a reduced cost. The final presentation from Candice Memerty provided students with an overview of the career and voluntary opportunities in the humanitarian field, together with an insight into the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to work in the field or at Headquarters. Finally Candice was able to provide an overview of the career and voluntary opportunities in the humanitarian field together with an insight into the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to work in the field or back at Headquarters.