New UN website aims to educate youth on hunger issues

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced the launch of a website aimed at young people, who will soon be making “critical decisions” about global hunger.

“Today’s youth are hungry to know more about the problems which are causing food shortages across the globe – like conflict in Pakistan, high food prices, climate change and the global financial crisis,” said Nancy Roman, WFP’s Director of Communications and Public Policy.

“Our web platform provides a gateway to enlighten and engage today’s youth who, in a few short years, will be responsible for making critical decisions about the many global challenges which will persist,” Ms. Roman said.

The new platform is the “Students and Teachers” section of WFP’s website: www.wfp.org.

WFP has reported that global hunger is on the rise, with 115 million people having joined the ranks of the hungry in the last two years alone.

Ms. Roman said the site is designed to increase awareness and understanding of hunger-related problems among teachers, and allow them to easily integrate topics such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the global agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

The site provides lesson plans and activities for teachers in addition to links to user-friendly educational sites, educational resources, blogs and interactive games for students, she said.

The site is a “resource shop for those who want to know everything they can about hunger – and what it will take to curb it.”

More than 25,000 people around the world die each day from hunger and related causes, 14,000 of them children, according to the WFP.

The agency said educators around the world have already contributed to the site, including Cape Breton University, Auburn University and a future farmers group in the United States. Students are encouraged to take action in their local communities through awareness-raising activities, and ideas on how to do this are offered, WFP said.