SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
malnutrition
Feeding Inspiration With the Refugee Olympic Team
These athletes are a testament to what people can overcome—but nobody should have to; hunger is manmade, and the solutions can be, too.
Jul 26, 2024
To meet the nutritional needs of 15,000 athletes and staff from 208 countries and territories, the 2024 Paris Olympics will need to prepare 40,000 meals every day—which adds up to 1.2 million meals, including 3 million bananas and 27 tons of coffee.
Their diverse sports demand very different requirements. Some athletes must maintain an exact weight, while others may need to increase their carbohydrate or protein intake. After all, nutrition fuels athletic performance.
And yet, some athletes come from places where malnutrition is a constant concern. In many parts of the world, hunger is deeply linked to conflict, which has been on the rise. More than 117 million people were forcibly displaced last year. It can create a vicious cycle, as many displaced people face hunger and uncertainty. But, their stories don’t have to end there.
As we prepare to cheer on the Refugee Olympic Team, we’re spotlighting accomplished athletes and their countries of origin—all places where Action Against Hunger runs programs that can help the next generation realize their potential.
Talent is everywhere, and it can become greatness when it is nourished. For proof, look no further than the Refugee Olympic Team. Launched at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the team is a symbol of hope. This year, the team is composed of 37 athletes from 15 National Olympic Committees, competing across 12 sports. To be eligible, an athlete must be a top competitor in their sport and a refugee in their host country.
Action Against Hunger is familiar with the ongoing global refugee crisis, which has surged in recent years. Conflict is a major driving force behind the growing displacement, and more forced displacement equals more hunger—more than 85% of people living in conflict-affected countries are experiencing food insecurity.
As we prepare to cheer on the Refugee Olympic Team, we’re spotlighting accomplished athletes and their countries of origin—all places where Action Against Hunger runs programs that can help the next generation realize their potential.
Afghanistan
After decades of conflict and growing climate stress, 24 million Afghans, or nearly 60% of the population, need help to afford food and other basic necessities. Studies have shown that a majority of the population also is dealing with mental health challenges, which can be deeply linked to hunger.
A number of athletes originally from Afghanistan are part of the Refugee Olympic Team. We’ll be rooting for them:
- Manizha Talash is a breakdancer who now resides in Spain but has been reunited with members of her hip-hop community from Kabul.
- Farzad Mansouri’s sport is taekwondo. Born in Parwan, he was part of the Afghan Olympic Team in Tokyo 2020 before he had to leave his country due to safety concerns.
- Nigara Sha Heen was born in Afghanistan and currently resides in Peshawar, Pakistan. She is a judoka (someone who practices judo) and competes in the -70 kilogram category.
- Arab Sibghatullah also practices judo, and his love for the sport began when he was eight years old. Originally from Kunduz province, he now lives in Germany.
- Amir Ansari is a cyclist. Born in Iran, he grew up in Afghanistan before he was forced to flee in 2015. He now lives in Sweden and trains with the Stockholm Cycling Club.
Syria
Conflict has created a hunger crisis in Syria, where people are dealing with shattered infrastructure and soaring inflation. A full 6.7 million Syrians have been displaced, and 90% of the population lives in poverty, with 64% relying on humanitarian assistance to survive.
Here are some of the impressive Syrian refugee athletes we’re cheering on during the Olympics:
- Alaa Masso lived in Aleppo before he left the country in 2015. He now resides in Germany where he continues his education and is a competitive swimmer.
- Muna Dahouk began practicing judo in Damascus at the age of six. Forced to flee the country in 2019, she now lives in the Netherlands with her mother.
- Yahya Al Ghotany’s sport is taekwondo. He now trains with the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation’s Azraq Academy in Jordan.
- Both a long and triple jumper, Mohammad Amin Alsalami was born in Syria. Forced to leave his home country twice, he now lives in Berlin.
Sudan
Hunger has long been widespread in Sudan, and when civil war broke out last year, things became even worse. Sudan’s health system is under extreme stress and millions of people face crisis levels of hunger, yet only 30% of its hunger-related programs are funded.
In this year’s Paris games, two outstanding athletes originally from Sudan are competing on the Refugee Olympic Team:
- Musa Suliman competes in the 400 meter. Born in Sudan, he moved to Cairo at the age of nine and to Switzerland in 2021.
- Jamal Abdelmaji is a track athlete who ran the 5,000m in the 2020 Olympic Games. He fled Darfur as a teenager and now lives with a host family in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Ethiopia
Recently one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Ethiopia now faces one of the 10 worst food crises on the planet. Conflict and climate-related drought have taken a toll. An estimated 40% of its children under five are stunted, meaning that chronic or recurring malnutrition is preventing them from reaching typical growth milestones.
Here are two Ethiopian athletes participating in this year’s Refugee Olympic Team:
- Eyeru Gebru is a cyclist from Ethiopia who moved to France in 2021 in order to escape conflict at home.
- Farida Abaroge grew up in Jimma and is passionate about running, football, and karate. Forced to leave Ethiopia at a young age, Abaroge traveled through many countries before finally finding refuge in France.
These athletes are a testament to what people can overcome—but nobody should have to. Hunger is manmade, and the solutions can be, too. Together, we can create a world where every life is well nourished.
We hope you’ll join us in showing your support for athletes and refugees during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Cheer them on, share their stories, and post about them on your socials. Note the link between nutrition and performance in sports and in life, celebrate the talent that can emerge from hardship, and help bring attention to the tens of millions who still need support.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Visible Signs of Wasting': Heat, Forced Malnutrition Strangle People of Gaza
"Nothing changed," said journalist Bisan Owda. "The Israeli army is still committing the same massacres using starvation in the north and the south."
Jun 20, 2024
Humanitarian officials at the United Nations warned Wednesday evening that with Israel continuing to block aid deliveries across Gaza, thousands of children are among those facing acute malnutrition as extreme summer heat exacerbates suffering in the besieged enclave.
The Site Management Working Group for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released its latest report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, noting that aid deliveries in recent days have done little to improve the condition of a population that has been under attack by the U.S.-backed Israeli military—and facing an illegal blockade—for more than eight months.
OCHA said its workers have seen "visible signs of wasting among children"—the most dangerous form of malnutrition, which causes a child to be too thin for their height and results from rapid weight loss.
"No nutrition screenings have been conducted to assess the scale of malnutrition and treat identified cases due to limited capacity," reported OCHA.
Last week, the World Health Organization reported that more than 8,000 children have been diagnosed with and treated for acute malnutrition, including 1,600 with severe wasting.
Health officials have counted at least 32 deaths from malnutrition in Gaza, including 28 among children under the age of five. At least 37,431 Palestinians have been reported killed in the enclave since October, but with hospitals, emergency services, and communications systems largely inoperable due to relentless attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the official death tolls from starvation and other causes are likely significant undercounts.
OCHA reported that at displacement sites like Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis, and Al Mawasi, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people are "living in overcrowded makeshift shelters and tents" with no protection from extreme heat, medical facilities are operating for only a few hours per day and have shortages of medicines.
"Unaffordable transportation and the lack of ambulance services hamper access to partially functioning hospitals, with reports of emergency deliveries taking place in tents with no medical support at late hours during the night," the agency reported.
At Al Jazeera on Thursday, correspondent Hani Mahmoud provided a dispatch from Deir el-Balah, where reporters entered Al-Aqsa Hospital—the only remaining hospital with any functionality in central Gaza:
We spoke to medical staff who described the outbreak of diseases as "alien." The diseases are spreading among displaced people due to their poor living conditions, contaminated water, lack of sanitation and hygiene, and the rising heat. The Israeli military destroyed the vast majority of Gaza's sanitation facilities. It's easy to walk along any of the roads here and see sewage. This is all aggravating the spread of diseases, particularly infectious diseases among women, children, and those who have health complications. Inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, there is unanimous agreement that it is not a hospital any more. It's not suitable for medical services, it's not suitable to save lives.
Pediatric surgeon Jamal Mari, who has been working at one of Deir el-Balah's destroyed hospitals, Al-Ahli, on a medical aid mission from Australia, toldAl Jazeera he encountered a facility with "zero supplies," and was barred from bringing any of his own medical equipment to provide care.
"Whatever disposables we have, we keep reusing and reusing them, which is not safe at all," said Mari. "They've got five rooms which they say are operating theaters, but honestly they're just little cubicles re-fashioned and done as theaters... I don't understand how they're managing."
Deir el-Balah was the site of overnight Israeli air strikes on Thursday, as was the Nuseirat refuguee camp. At least three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured, while the IDF increased its attacks on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 900,000 people have already fled since Israel launched a full-scale attack in May.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported on Wednesday that since October 7, when the IDF began its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, 67% of water sanitation facilities and infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged.
In addition to starvation, UNRWA said, "as infectious diseases continue to spread and temperatures rise, the lack of hygiene and dehydration pose a severe threat to the health of people across Gaza."
OCHA's report on Wednesday noted that "access constraints continue to severely undermine the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and services across Gaza, including the delivery of food and nutrition assistance, medical care, protection and shelter support, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services to hundreds of thousands of people."
Between June 1-18, Israeli authorities facilitated 46% of humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza. But more than half were either impeded, denied access, or canceled.
Planned transfers of hygiene kits, water deliveries, and waste removals were among the missions that were denied access, and dozens of humanitarian missions were also canceled and impeded in southern Gaza over the same time period.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, described the sabotage of the agency's aid efforts.
"Staff spend five to eight hours waiting at checkpoints every day," he said. "Missiles hit our premises, despite being deconflicted."
On social media, Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda posted a video on Wednesday saying that although some aid deliveries have been granted access by Israeli authorities in recent days, Palestinians are still "starving to death."
"Nothing changed," said Owda. "The Israeli army is still committing the same massacres using starvation in the north and the south, because simply, the air drops are not enough... They are trying to kill the people of Gaza by starvation."
Keep ReadingShow Less
No, I Will Not Be Attending Netanyahu's Speech
These children and thousands more are the direct result of Netanyahu’s policies—Netanyahu, the man Speaker Johnson has invited to address Congress.
Jun 03, 2024
Editor's Note: The following are the remarks as delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday, June 3, 2024 in response to an invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
Mr. President,
Yesterday, in an interview with Fox News, Speaker Mike Johnson said that I “was parroting the talking points of Hamas” and that I and others “stand with Hamas and the Ayatollah.”
That, of course, is an absolute lie. As I’ve said many times, I believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed an atrocious act when it began this war by attacking Israel on October 7th, killing 1,200 innocent men, women, and children and taking more than 200 hostages, many of whom are still being held in captivity today.
Further, as I have said on numerous occasions, I think that the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, is a war criminal and should be arrested. Now, I am not quite sure that those are the talking points that Hamas uses.
But what the Fox interview did get right is that I believe it is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both political parties – to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
Why I will not attend Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. https://t.co/et2hvvw2HR
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 3, 2024
Israel, of course, had the right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th. But it did not, and it does not, have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.
Mr. President, two days after the war began, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
“We are fighting human animals” – that’s his definition of the Palestinian people – “and we are acting accordingly.”
Mr. President, that is what the Israeli Defense Minister said, and – tragically – that is exactly what the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government has done.
And let me put some detail into exactly what that means and whether anyone really believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu should be a guest of honor of the United States Congress and the American people.
Mr. President, over the last almost eight months, Netanyahu and his extremist government have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and wounded over 82,000 – that is 5 percent of the population of Gaza. And 60 percent of those who have been killed or wounded are women, children, and the elderly.
Netanyahu’s war machine has driven 1.7 million people from their homes – 75 percent of the population of Gaza. And I would like the American people to think about that. Think about your community, think about your state, think about what it would mean if 75 percent – three-quarters – of your population were driven from their homes. And most of these people are poor, and they leave their homes, not knowing where they are going, with nothing but what they could carry in their hands. Think about that incredible level of desperation. Three-quarters of the population driven from their homes, carrying a few bundles of clothing or food or whatever it may be.
Further, Netanyahu’s government has damaged or destroyed over 60 percent of the housing in Gaza, leaving more than one million people permanently homeless. You know there is a lot of talk in the media and among the pundits about the “day after” the war ends. But let’s be clear: for over one million people, there is no day after in which they can return to their homes, because their homes, their housing units, have been destroyed.
And it’s not just the housing stock of Gaza that has been destroyed, Netanyahu and his government have destroyed the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, obliterated water and sewage systems, and denied electricity to the people who live there.
Defense Minister Gallant in his statement that I read a moment ago said, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity.” Well, they have kept their word. Imagine living, month after month, with no electricity or clean water, and seeing sewage run out onto the streets. That is life for the people of Gaza right now.
Mr. Netanyahu – the gentleman invited by Mr. Johnson and the Democratic leadership here – Mr. Netanyahu and his government have annihilated Gaza’s health care system. And I have talked to doctors – American doctors – who have been there, who talk about the systematic destruction of their health care system. Twenty-six hospitals have been knocked out of service, and more than 400 health care workers have been killed. Four hundred health care workers killed. In other words, there are some 80,000 wounded people in Gaza – and hundreds of thousands of people who are sick. According to the World Health Organization, as of May 5, there were hundreds of thousands of cases of acute respiratory illness and diarrhea, including 110,000 children. And yet despite all of the injuries caused by the bombings, despite all of the sickness caused by the lack of clean water, there is virtually no health care available to these people, because the health care system has been almost totally destroyed.
You know, Mr. President, there are 12 universities in Gaza, where kids are able to get an education. In fact, the people of Gaza and Palestinian areas take education very seriously. Every single one of these 12 universities has been bombed, as have 56 schools. Today, 625,000 children in Gaza have no access to education.
And I would ask the American people just to think about what is going on psychically, psychologically, to the children of Gaza. Imagine being in a place where drones are flying all over the place, maybe they’re with weapons, maybe not. Buildings have been destroyed. Your relatives have been killed. You don’t have any water, you don’t have any food, you’re driven from one place to another. What kind of permanent damage will occur to virtually every one of these children. What a horrible experience it is.
And maybe most importantly, when we think about the wisdom of Mr. Netanyahu being invited to address both houses of Congress – an honor, to address both houses of Congress and the American people – we should remember that his government, according to virtually every humanitarian organization functioning in Gaza, has blocked – intentionally blocked – humanitarian aid – that is food, water, and medical supplies – from reaching the desperate people of Gaza, which has created on top of everything else the conditions for starvation and famine.
Mr. President, I will tell you, as you probably already know, that blocking humanitarian aid and creating the conditions for famine is not only an act of extreme cruelty – using starvation as an act of war – but it is a violation of both American and international law. It is a war crime. That is what it is.
And let me say a word about what is going on in Gaza right now in terms of malnutrition.
According to the UN, since mid-January at least 30 children – 30 children – have starved to death.
More than 93,000 children under five have been screened for malnutrition; 7,280 were found to have acute malnutrition, including 5,604 with moderate acute malnutrition and 1,676 with severe acute malnutrition.
But, importantly, that is just what we know. The full reality is likely much, much worse, but Israel has prevented journalists and the media from getting into the most desperate areas in Gaza.
You know, Mr. President, as we all know, we’re in campaign season. And I would say to Speaker Johnson that when you attend your fundraising dinners with your billionaire friends, and you eat your fine steaks and your lobsters and your other wonderful food, please remember these pictures from Gaza.
This is a photograph of a child in Gaza taken by Getty.
This is a photograph of a child and his or her mother taken by Reuters. And one doubts very much whether that child is alive today.
This is a photograph taken by Al Jazeera.
And this is another photograph taken by Getty of a child who I can’t imagine is alive today.
These children and thousands more are the direct result of Netanyahu’s policies – Netanyahu, the man Speaker Johnson has invited to address Congress.
No, Mr. President, I will not be in attendance for that speech.
I yield the floor.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular