Malungelo Booi reports that students in South African schools commit suicide due to hunger:
HUNGER and desperation are driving pupils at a school near Mthatha to commit suicide, according to the principal.
More than a quarter of the pupils at Upper Corana High School, in Misty Mount near Mthatha, may be HIV/Aids orphans, and the high scholar suicide rate has become a matter of concern to provincial authorities.
Suthukazi Lujabe, the school’s principal, said most of the pupils walk long distances on empty stomachs to get to school.
She said every year from 2001 to 2006, one or two pupils killed themselves at the school due to hunger.
Such suicides demonstrate the terrible agony of which these poor children suffer. Even worse, think of the 18,000 children who involuntarily die from hunger. They suffer in hunger pains that would drive some to suicide, which leads to their slow death.
How can we expect children to learn in a school with such hunger?
The world has more than enough food to feed everyone. Why do we allow hunger to continue?!
What do you think?
It’s beyond me why so many people are suffering out there in the world when there is something that can be done. I used to feed the homeless or whoever needed to eat through a local food not bombs, but eventually i stopped because of differences between me and a fellow member/s. I should have stuck with it though because that was a big part of my life, it gave me an amazing feeling inside just knowing that people appreciated what we were doing for them. I really miss it. i don’t even know who’s doing it anymore. I tried reaching out to some people but got no response.
I look forward to getting involved again soon, but i just don’t know how. Any suggestions?