FRW news in brief

    | October 28, 2013

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    1- Troubled by civil strife and isolation, Burundi, Comoros and Eritrea top 2013 Global Hunger Index

    According to this year’s Global Hunger Index recently released by the NGO Concern International, nineteen countries have alarming levels of hunger, with Burundi the worst affected for the second year in a row. Comoros and Eritrea are next on the list. Despite progress in combating global hunger, 870 million people around the world go hungry every day. As in previous years, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were identified as the regions facing the highest levels of hunger.

    The report said conflict and political instability in Burundi and Comoros were partly to blame for increased hunger in the two African countries since 1990. Eritrea has also faced its own problems, stemming from its increasing isolation under the two-decade rule of President Isaias Afewerki, after a 30-year war with Ethiopia.

    To read the full story, go to: http://www.trust.org/item/20131014094652-lwpie/

    To read the Global Hunger Index report, visit the Concern International website: https://www.concern.net/sites/www.concern.net/files/media/blog-post/2013_ghi_web.pdf

    2- Kenya: Support for rabbit farming in Busia County

    Rabbit-raising projects in the schools of Busia County, in western Kenya, have received a boost. The projects, being run in nine primary schools across the county, have received 250,000 Kenyan shillings ($3,000 US) to help vulnerable students. The money was donated by APHIAplus Nuru ya Bonde, an NGO which aims to improve the lives of mothers, children and their families in Kenya’s Rift Valley.

    Schoolchildren are raising the rabbits for both commercial and nutritional reasons. Fourteen-year old Daniel Ojulu is one of the beneficiaries of the project. He was given two rabbits by the school administration early this year. After breeding them, he now has seven. The orphan has been able to sell some rabbits to meet some of his financial needs.

    Daniel was quoted on the Africa Science News website as saying. “I find rabbit keeping very interesting. I can buy books, shoes and other needs for myself, and I plan to rear more than 100 rabbits by 2014.”

    You can read the full story at: http://www.africasciencenews.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=979:aphia-plus-supports-rabbit-farming-in-busia-county&catid=49:food&Itemid=113