Every year, hunger kills more people than malaria, HIV and tuberculosis combined. However, it costs only $0.80 to feed a child for one day. There are 20 times as many Smartphone users as hungry children. If every one of us gives just a little, we can make this world a better and beautiful place! The saddest part is that the world produces more than enough food to satisfy every being but there is still huger in the world, the problem lies in the system. How to deal with this complex problem? Ayin Wangsa introduces us to a revolutionary mobile application developed and introduced by World Food Program that has a potential to connect the world to eradicate hunger.
Share The Meal-Let us be the Messengers of ‘Justice’
“Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those throughout the world who live and die in poverty or hunger. Give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread; and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.” Amen !
~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Hunger is a term that has been defined differently by different people due to its physiological as well as its socio economic aspects. In most cases, the term hunger has been defined in relation to food insecurity. However, according to D.H. Holben, hunger is usually defined as a condition that is painful or uneasy emanating from lack of food.
Hunger is a direct outcome of Poverty. As long as poverty will exist, hunger will exist too. Poverty eradication has been on the agenda of United Nations and world governments since very long however, it seems little success has been achieved in this regard and as a result, problem of hunger too lingering around especially in the underdeveloped and developing countries. However, UN World Food Programme has come out with unique idea in the form a Smartphone APP to fight global hunger. There is a talk going on all over the world about the success stories of this unique APP which has been named as “SHARE THE MEAL”.
Share the meal is a Smartphone application or an app to fight global huger through the United Nations World Food Programme. It is a crowdfunding app which enables users to make small donations to specific World Food Programme projects and track its progress. The application was founded by Sebastian Stricker and Bernhard kowatsch in April 2014 as an independent startup.
“Share The Meal” enables Smartphone users around the world to join the fight against hunger. With just a tap on Smartphone, one can share their meal with a hungry child. It costs just 0.50 cents to feed one child for a day. This App also allows the users being able to choose where (out of several different initiatives) their donation goes to help.
As per the official information given with the App, the Share The Meal community has completed eleven fundraising targets, helping schoolchildren In Lesotho, Malawi and Cameroon, Syrian refugee children in Jordan, Lebanon and inside Syria, as well as children affected by conflict in Yemen, South Sudan and Northeast Nigeria and also they have programs for Indian subcontinent.
WFP has been termed as the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting Hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries. On any given day, WFP has 5,000 trucks, 20 ships and 92 planes on the move, delivering food and other assistance to those in most need. Every year, they distribute approximately 12.6 billion rations. These numbers lie at the roots of WFP’s unparalleled reputation as an emergency responder, one that gets the job done quickly at scale in the most difficult environments. WFP needed to raise $25 million each week to meet the basic food needs of those affected by the enormous Syrian crisis. Hence, technology became the only mode to scale up food relief in what was WFP’s “largest and most complex operation” in the world. According to the UN, there are over 800 million malnourished people across the globe. It means one in every nine persons don’t get enough food to lead a healthy and active life. “The good news is that hunger is entirely solvable,” notes Sebastian in the ‘About’ section of the app. He says, Smartphone users outnumber hungry children by twenty to one. If every one of us makes a small contribution and shares a meal, we can really make a difference for children in need.”In less than three years, more than 25 million meals have been shared by 1.1 million people through STM. STM is available in 11 languages and supports donations in 28 currencies, including the Indian Rupee.
In 2017, ShareTheMeal won the Google Play Award for Best Social Impact App. Since then, it has been featured on Play Store’s Editor’s Picks Section, and has also recorded over a 100,000 downloads. Android users have rated it very highly (4.8 out of 5) too. As APP claim, the donation from users goes into feeding the children, and the operational costs are managed by grants to WFP and donations from the business community and philanthropists. This social entrepreneurship model developed in public interest has a set a new milestone.
It is a fact that around the world, 690 million people go to bed hungry every night. With a record number of global crises emerging many fueled by conflict and the effects of extreme climate and humanitarian needs are on the rise.
Even though we produce enough food for everyone, one in nine people is hungry. At the same time, there are 20 times more Smartphone users than hungry people in the world. ShareTheMeal makes fighting hunger accessible to anyone with a Smartphone, and gives them the ability to help end one of the greatest challenges of our time. ShareTheMeal’s fundamental proposition is this, if everyone with a Smartphone “shared their meal” with a simple tap and a donation, global hunger could be ended. The app has a community of more than 1.3 million users who have, as of August 2020, shared over 80 million meals with children in need. These donations have helped some of WFP’s most critical operations, including those in Yemen, Syria, and South Sudan.
Assisting almost 100 million people in around 83 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Such an initiative has not only raised hopes of the people but also inspired policy makers all over the world to think on the similar lines creating a Public-Private Model to battle hunger and malnutrition.
Let us understand that Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice. Together we can end hunger; Hunger is still one of the biggest and most solvable problems in the world. We have already made incredible progress as there are 216 million fewer hungry people now than in the 90’s as per official UN statistics which shows that it is possible to end hunger. WFP is working very diligently to achieve this aim, feeding over 85 million people in urgent need and implementing programmes that tackle the causes of hunger. However, this work depends on the support of people who are willing to share an extra burden- to keep someone alive by ‘Sharing a Meal’. Moreover, despite ShareTheMeal App being a temporary solution, the model is working fine with all the limitations, however, I feel, countries worldwide needs to be encouraged to develop a constructive and cost-effective agricultural model that could encourage optimum production output of food grains available in the most cost effective price.
“Hunger at last can be repealed
Earth can sustain us with her yield
Let the World together eat
Pass the food to every seat…..Pass the food to every seat”
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr. Aniruddha Babar, Dr. Pfokrelo Kapesa, Rinsit B Sareo, Meren Lemtur and Kvulo Lorin.
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