FH is focusing efforts in South Gondar where the organization has the logistical capacity to implement relief projects because of ongoing work there. We also are supporting a Therapeutic Feeding Center just outside of Jijiga in the Somali region - the hardest hit area of the country. Food for the Hungry's famine relief plan is just part of ongoing, large-scale efforts to produce permanent improvement in the lives of Ethiopia's poor. Undernutrition is inadequate consumption of food for a prolonged period of time. Malnutrition results from inadequate consumption of one or more nutrients such as Vitamin A or Iodine and can cause permanent physical and mental damage.
Famine occurs when there is an area of acute undernutrition.
However, famines account for only about ten percent of hunger deaths. The process of starvation consists of three phases. The events of the first two phases occur even during relatively short periods of fasting or dieting, but the third phase occurs only in prolonged starvation and can end in death. During the first phase, blood glucose levels are maintained from glycogen, proteins, and fats. However, only enough glycogen is stored in the liver to last a few hours.