“Starved for Attention” Traveling Exhibition

November 1, 2011

This article is part of the Fall 2011 issue of the MSF Alert newsletter.

This fall, MSF-USA traveled to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, to stage “Starved for Attention,” a free interactive exhibit designed to raise awareness about the global crisis of childhood malnutrition. This is a preventable, treatable condition that continues to affect 195 million children worldwide and contributes to at least one-third of the eight million deaths of children under five every year.

Initiated two years ago, "Starved for Attention" is an advocacy campaign that seeks to achieve key reforms of the international food aid system, to ensure that children receive the quality foods they need. The exhibit recreated an MSF field hospital just like those used to treat tens of thousands of malnourished children in countries such as Somalia, Kenya, Niger, Burkina Faso, and India. MSF medical staff and aid workers, veterans of malnutrition efforts in the field, guided visitors through a simulated clinic that featured photographs taken by the award-winning photojournalists of VII Photo and highlighted methods that have been proven effective in the battle against malnutrition—tools that must be scaled up worldwide. “Our hope is that visitors will not only learn about the underlying causes of malnutrition, but that they will join us in the fight against it,” said Sophie Delaunay, MSF-USA’s executive director.

Malnutrition is not merely the result of too little food. The first two years of life are a critical window when children need access to a diet of high-quality protein, essential fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, in order to avoid impaired growth and development and increased risk of death from common illnesses. Yet most food aid does not include these essential ingredients. “Foods we would never give our own children here in the U.S. are being sent overseas as food aid to the most vulnerable children,” said Delaunay. “This double standard must stop.”

As of October 10, more than 130,000 people—including many who attended the exhibition—had signed a petition demanding that policymakers improve the nutritional quality of food aid.

For more information, and to see the photos and films, please visit starvedforattention.org.

 

Tags: Starved for Attention, Malnutrition