ACF International Network
USA
water_drink.jpg
Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
water_drink.jpg
Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
water_pump.jpg
Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
foodsec_berries.jpg
Action Against Hunger's programs are sustainable because of our commitment to community participation—to build local capacity and harnesses a population's energy and resources.
foodsec_pond.jpg
Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
foodsec_field.jpg
Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
water_hose.jpg
Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
nutr_heal2.jpg
Action Against Hunger occupies a unique place among international organizations: our expertise encompasses emergency relief, longer-term development, and the terrain in between.
nutr_smile.jpg
We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
nutr_aaa.jpg
Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
nutr_nurse.jpg
Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
ACF International Map
Where We Work

Understanding Hunger

Ending acute or chronic hunger is first and foremost a political endeavor. While the treatment of acute malnutrition requires a very technical medical response in an emergency setting, basic improvements in a community's water and sanitation infrastructure, for instance, can help ensure greater long-term health and food security.

Many words that describe hunger or malnutrition are often used interchangeably. Below are some generally accepted definitions of key terms related to hunger.

Defining Food Security

Access by all people at all times to sufficient food to live an active and healthy life.

Defining Hunger

Although hunger has a subjective sense - one can feel hungry but well fed, or on the other hand, a malnourished child may feel no hunger - ACF uses "hunger" to denote its more objective sense: Hunger is any caloric intake below the minimum established by the World Food Program (U.N.) of 2,000 kcal/day.

Defining Malnutrition

A person whose caloric intake remains below the minimum of 2,000 kcal/day becomes malnourished. (Although obesity is also a form of malnutrition, we use the word malnutrition only to indicate that someone is under-nourished.)

There are two types of malnutrition:

Chronic malnutrition - which can occur gradually and presist for generations, is common in developing countries and is the consequence of an unbalanced diet lacking in fundamental nutrients and leading to nutritional deficiency.

Acute malnutrition - which occurs suddenly to a dangerous degree, is the result of a severe lack of food. Acute malnutrition provokes diseases and leads to death if intense treatment is not administered immediately. Acute malnutrition can take two forms: moderate or severe malnutrition.

Severe malnutrition, in turn, takes two different clinical forms:

Kwashiorkor - a Ghanian term meaning "a disease suffered by the child separated from his mother's breast" - is characterized by a high risk of mortality. Children who have suffered brutal changes in diet have swollen cheeks and damaged hair and skin. To the untrained eye they don't seem ill, especially as they don't ask for food, but their bodies are swollen by edema, and they are listless and exhausted.

Marasmus is manifested by extreme emaciation. A skeletal appearance gives the child an elderly physique.

Population Groups Sensitive to Malnutrition

Children younger than five years old are the most vulnerable population, followed by pregnant or breast-feeding women and the elderly.

ACF's Response

There are different types of hunger, each requiring an appropriate response. Addressing hunger thus depends fundamentally on the type of hunger affecting a population.

The treatment of severe malnutrition—a disease—requires a medical response (as in ACF's therapeutic feeding centers), while addressing chronic malnutritionrequires a range of activities such as improving access to resources, securing of land tenure, and diversifying coping mechanisms and livelihoods.

Action Against Hunger's programs are designed to address both the short- and long-term needs of vulnerable communities. With sufficient resources backing our field programs, we can reduce hunger while working to generate the political will to end world hunger, once and for all.

Rome