Women in Agriculture

Maternal and child health is not limited to pregnancy and child birth. From birth, through infancy, and well into childhood, children’s lives are in the hands of their mothers. This responsibility is an incredible challenge for a number of reasons, especially when women don’t always have the appropriate resources to safeguard the health of their children. In fact, 1 billion children lack access to at least one essential resource or service — including water, basic health care, sanitation, and shelter. This inequity in resource distribution comes at a high cost. In 2015, 16,000 children younger than 5 died every day. The causes of these deaths include respiratory infections, diarrhea, and infectious disease, and many of these deaths are preventable.
Every year, 3.1 million children die from poor nutrition. This statistic is especially heart breaking when coupled with the fact that approximately one-third of the food produced in the world every year gets wasted.
Reducing child mortality requires the collaboration of a number of sectors and strategies. There is no silver bullet for preventing all preventable deaths. Reducing food waste in developed countries will not automatically translate to improved nutrition for children in the world’s poorest regions. Global food aid has been one temporary solution to increase food accessibility. However, even with the 5 million metric tons of food distributed via global food aid in 2012, millions of children still go hungry. Women ...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 21, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Agriculture Women Source Type: blogs