Hi - The best help would be to full fill their eating and drinking needs first, than try to add communications more easy, famine can harm everything like the economic growth can go down, farmers suffer a lot, so help should be provided to them, regular medical check ups should be done, cause lack of water can cause epidemics in that area....
Famine is defined as an extreme shortage of food or lack of access to food by a population, accompanied by an increase in death rates. Deaths during famine occur not only due to malnutrition, but also from infectious diseases to which malnutrition predisposes the population and from the social ills brought about by food shortage. Famine is a true public health emergency, and unfortunately has been a common human experience throughout history. There have been thousands of famines over the last several centuries. The causes have included natural disasters such as droughts and floods; war, civil strife, and population displacement; and economic failure. In spite of the fact that worldwide food production has improved in the past several decades, and that global food supplies are sufficient to feed the world's current population, an estimated20 percent of people in developing countries—more than800 million people—lack access to enough food on a regular and predictable basis. The number of countries experiencing severe food shortages has almost tripled since1990. Compared to poverty, which is the most common cause of malnutrition worldwide, famine is preventable. Access to food has been repeatedly recognized as a basic human right. Promotion of this right requires international cooperation and a coordinated effort.
Best Social Service to preventing Famine: Famine can be prevented in several ways.
1. More attention to environmental issues, such as the rotation of crops.
This to help to keep the soil rich in nutrients or maintaining vegetative growth in fields year-round to keep soil from being blown or washed away. New agricultural technologies, including new fertilizers and pesticides and genetically improved crops, can also help avoid famine without harming the environment. Storing food during years of good harvest and redistribution of extra food and seeds to those who need them is another way of maintaining a food reserve.
2. Communication and Coordination among communities and governments.
Communication and Coordination among communities and governments in need is essential to help prevent famine. Governments in famine-prone areas need to be able to predict in advance what areas may be vulnerable, assess needs, obtain food and necessary supplies, and transport these items to food-short areas in a timely manner. In Africa, a system called the Famine Early Warning System has had success in famine prevention. This program uses several methods to assess impending risks of famine. The program monitors weather in Africa and uses satellite photographs to see if plants are healthy or deteriorating. It also monitors crop growth, food availability, and prices in local markets.
Famines due to "natural" causes can be avoided through coordinated effort to keep governments and people alert and prepared and to provide mechanisms for people to get food when they need it.
3. Recognition of and Respect for the fundamental right to food.
Food emergencies caused by war, civil strife, and political will depend on recognition of and respect for the fundamental right to food as a basic human right, and on enforcement of this principle in international law.
4. Redistribution of foods
Redistribution is customary support mechanisms include a major set of collective responses to the threat of food insecurity, managed by kin groups, customary political formations, villages and other smaller or larger groups In the event of a famine, the state should:
a) distribute to the public, on concessional terms, seeds and food from the royal stores;
b) share out royal food stocks;
c) commandeer private stocks of food for public distribution;
d) set up food-for-work public works programmes ‘such as building forts or irrigation works.
5. Providing Emergency Medical Team and Emergency Medical Center.
During famine epidemic and contagious diseases and malnutrition are outbreak. Major of the affected people may die for these diseases. So, Providing Emergency Medical Team and Emergency Medical Center is very necessary in the famine areas.
Famine is a preventable tragedy. Unlike poverty or chronic food insecurity, insecurity, famine could probably be eliminated rapidly by a quite simple set of policies. Such policies might be politically feasible. So the abolition of famine is a realistic goal, perhaps by the end of this century.
