Oxfam, founded in 1942 is a consortium of about 20 independent charitable organization which works to assuage global poverty led by Oxfam international. It is a popular non-profit group with an extensive collection of operations.
According to the new Oxfam report published on July 9, 2021, more than half a million population are living in famine-like conditions and are on the brink of starvation.
The anti-poverty organization says that 11 people die of hunger each minute and that the number of people facing famine-like conditions has registered a significant increase in the period of last six years.
In a report titled “Hunger multiplies virus”, Oxfam claimed that the death toll from famine outpaces the that of COVID-19, which kills around seven people per minute. The report estimates that as many as 11 people are dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute, 36 percent more than the seven people dying from COVID every minute.
Ongoing conflict, economic disruptions caused by the pandemic and an escalating climate crisis have pushed millions more people into extreme level of food insecurity and some to the brink of starvation. The humanitarian group also said that 155 million people from around the last world now live at crisis level of food insecurity or worse, some 20 million more than the last year.
Some of the world’s hunger hotspots including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen continue to suffer from conflict and have witnessed a surge in the extreme levels of surge since last year.
Simultaneously, economic disruptions due to Covid-19 has intensified poverty and inequality and more than 400 weather-related disasters have increased hunger in communities.
Despite the virus, the military spending increased by $51 million, said Oxfam, six times of what US needs to stop hunger.
Oxfam in its report shares about Bahjah, a mother of eight in Yemen who had to flee for multiple times told Oxfam:
“My husband is very old to work, and I am sick. We had no choice but to send our children to ask people for food but even whatever they brought was not enough.”
Hunger has also emerged in the middle-income countries namely India, Brazil, Sudan, Yemen, Sehal which also show some of the sharpest rises in COVID-19 infections. The virus has only fueled poverty and hunger across the global and the governments also need to take stringent measures to better the situation. A Peoples’ Vaccine has never been this urgent.
