AO1: What do Catholics teach about causes of hunger and disease?

Catholics teach that there are five basic needs for all people, across the world. These are health, education, food, water and work. Without water and food, the body will die. Without a balanced diet and a clean supply of water, the body will suffer from malnutrition or diseases such as cholera. And without health, food or water, they become ill, children cannot get an education, and adults cannot go to work, and without these they cannot earn a living to pay for those things that keep them alive. This is called the poverty cycle, and is one of the main problems throughout the developing world that must be tackled.                    

          There are many causes of hunger and disease, and some of these are related to either a process in the poverty cycle or something that starts the cycle. The main causes include population, natural disasters, war, ignorance, debt and unjust trading.  

As many families in the developing world grow crops to earn money and feed themselves, they rely on the land and labour. As many countries use the land to grow cash crops, there is often no spare land for the people to feed themselves. The cheapest way to get labour is by having larger families to work on the land, but the children are also needed to look after their parents when they are too old to work. There is also the low life expectancy in these places, so there are lots of large, young families. These factors all lead to having a young, poor uneducated population, as they don’t have the time or money to go to school. If the children don’t learn at school, then they cannot read or write, they won’t be able to avoid diseases such as cholera, as they don’t know what they can do to stay safe. They cannot earn a better living, or provide a brighter future for their children, and so they will continue to live in the poverty cycle.

Many developing countries are situated in places in the world prone to natural disasters. For example Bangladesh is mostly in the Ganges Delta, and although this is one of the world’s most fertile places, it is subject to annual monsoon floods and cyclones. As homes are usually built with the little spare money families have, they tend to be basic and simple shelters. An earthquake or flood can destroy thousands of homes, or land that the population depends on for food. Droughts in Sudan often lead to crops simply not growing, and without developed irrigation systems, the people are not likely to survive on their own produce. The lack of a reliable source of food and income means that many families will go hungry. The two main diseases caused through hunger are ‘Marasmus’ and ‘Kwashiorkor’, both are mainly caused by a lack of protein in the diet, and both can lead to death. This is another example where poor diet and hunger can lead to disease and death.

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For many developing countries, debt is a major problem. Countries such as Zambia, Honduras and Haiti, all had to take out large loans from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to support their economies and people. These loans have to be paid with interest and the countries often fail to meet payments. They are then forced to cut down spending on things such as education and healthcare. As the interest rate is so high, and unjust trading allows the developed world to change the price of cash crops at will, the countries find it hard to keep up, and soon are ...

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