Social Work Assignment | Online Assignment

Please discuss your reasons for seeking admission into the BSW Program and your career goals.
– a social worker helped my family when I first came to America back in 2007. I came to America with 3 sisters and 3 brothers including me thats a total of 7 kids. My mother had to take care of us. two of my siblings were over the age of 18 years old they helped my mom pay the bills. since my father was still in Africa a school social worker helps him to come to America. since one of my siblings was over the age of 18 he always wanted to finish school. the school social worker helps ed, my brother, to enroll in Newcomer school. After that, he went into a regular high school. he went to college and got his degree.

Describe a social problem of concern to you. Include research that helps the reader better understand the problem. (Burundi Hunger)

Social workers practice with diverse groups. What groups may challenge you because of either your personal values, attitudes, and/or experience and how will you handle this?
_ people who rape kids because children are innocent. I will try not to let my personal judgment get involve ( look up NASW CODE FOR SOCIAL WORK)

Based on your previous volunteer and/or employment experience related to social work, discuss what you did to ensure that you helped and did not cause harm to those you served.

Volunteer Experience
Newcomer School, Greensboro, NC
Helping students with their classwork
Passed out food/ clothes to low income students
Oak Hill Friends Church High Point,NC
Teaching immigrants about the American culture
Translating from English to Kirundi

Burundi Hunger

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Abstract

The paper aims at examining the incidence of hunger in Burundi to divulge how its principal characteristics; hence, suggest the strategies that could be banked upon for its counteraction. Hunger in Burundi is a critical social concern since it is threatening the survival of a considerable proportion of humankind in the country. For a nation covering an area of approximately 27,834 square kilometers only, 10 million inhabitants are a burden worth unbearable. Coupling up this with a close to 90% unemployment instance, many Burundians are struggling to put meals on their tables. A worrying incidence is that close to 60% of Burundian children are malnourished, meaning that they are likely to die, struggle to learn or grow healthy. Based on a concise analysis of three resources, the piece suggests that increasing the funding levels towards Burundi’s critical programs, for example, education, and agriculture as well as advocating family planning in the region, hunger incidences would start improving.

Keywords: Malnutrition, overpopulation, immunity, sponsorship

Burundi Hunger

Hunger, which can manifest as an inability to buy food or incapacity to support sustainable agricultural practices, is amongst the social concerns rampaging many parts of the globe. Hunger is often categorized as a problem for the developing nations, considering that they are the ones lacking sufficient resources to upkeep their residents. Burundi, a developing country in East African country, is among those regions exhibiting tremendous levels of hunger in the world. The country is impoverished (stands at number 180 of the 186 nations ranked in latest human development index, HDI) and densely populated (about 463 Burundians per square kilometer) (Kuo, 2015). As a result, the nation experiences the wrath of hunger, which encompasses malnutrition and deteriorated immunity, among other consequences, which all an embodiment of high morbidity and mortality incidences. The paper seeks to explore hunger in Burundi to unveil its current state, causes, effects, and potential interventions for its mitigation.

Present Scenario

Hunger in Burundi is a widespread social problem, as is ethnic profiling, hatred, and violence in the same state. Statistics depicting hunger in Burundi affirm this, considering that they show millions of Burundians—more than half of the current population (10.16 million people) to be severely hungry. Close to 60% of this figure consists of kids aged five years and below who, according to Borgen, are chronically hungry, therefore at risk of starvation (2017). As a consequence, hunger is labeled as part and parcel of living, meaning that even Burundian kids have to acclimatize themselves to survive with it. For example, the majority of Burundian school kids must get used to skipping meals or even getting to school while their stomachs are empty. These assertions imply that bumping into a malnourished Burundian, more so in a young population, is just but customary.

According to WFP (2019), Burundian households, which are often unemployed, are likely to spend 75% of their hard-earned wages in purchasing food. The report implies that an enormous population is less likely to afford or purchase the needed farm implements, such as seeds or fertilizers. The consequence is inadequate domestic food production, whose consequent ramifications are ultimate hunger. Notably, it is argued that individuals cannot rely on their harvest to push them for more than two months after the harvest seasons. Coupling up this with the ever-rising Burundian population, the prevalence of hunger is likely to rise to unimaginable rates. In this regard, investigating the underlying causes of hunger in Burundi is inevitable, as it could go a long way into assisting in comprehensive policy formulation towards the problem’s alleviation.

Causes

Several issues have been blamed for the worrying levels of hunger in Burundi. Among others, the high population and poverty have been cited as the primary grounds for the endemic. Overpopulation can be relied upon to describe the hunger concern in Burundi since the level of population in a population determines the amount of resources its occupants will be entitled to. This is the case in Burundi, considering the nation has a population of around 11 million people, which has to survive on just 27,834 square kilometers of land (Kuo, 2015). Bearing in mind that the figures translate to about 463 people surviving on a square kilometer of land, there is no sufficient land for cultivation in the region. Worsening the scenario is that the current population is estimated to be rising at 3% annually.

Poverty, which is paramount in Burundi, is also accountable for a large portion of hunger among most Burundian households. Based on Kuo (2015), the nation is impoverished, considering its GDP is around $267, and it is contingent on coffee and tea exportation. Besides, approximately 90% of Burundians are unemployed, something that leaves them with no alternative other than subsistence farming (Borgen, 2017). This translates to close to three-quarters of Burundians surviving below the poverty line. These unimaginable poverty standards mean that people are less likely to afford food or engage in sustainable farming practices. Besides, it denies many households precise opportunities to access reliable education, meaning that they are missing a lot of vital learning insights concerning farming or proper feeding.

Effects

In the road towards addressing hunger in Burundi, it would be dangerous to neglect the effects the same hunger is inflicting on Burundians and the globe at large. Hunger in Burundi touches many aspects of people’s lives, with the major ones being deteriorating levels of immunity, malnutrition, low learning outcomes, and mortality rates. The immunity of the overall Burundian population is weakening because many people rarely feed on a balanced diet. Their scenario implies that they might never feed on protective meals, something that raises their prevalence of contracting common ailments. The consequence is that the morbidity rates in Burundi are enormous, something that also peaks the nation’s mortality incidence. For instance, Borgen (2017), reveals that around six in one hundred adult Burundians are HIV/AIDS positive, whereby more than 97% of them perish before hitting 55 years. Mortality rates are incredibly high, considering that it is standing at around 8%, and the consequent life expectancy is only about 60 years (Kuo, 2015)

Hunger in Burundi is responsible for the peaking malnutrition cases among its population. According to Borgen (2017), Burundi is reporting unanimous malnutrition incidences, especially among children, considering that about 60% of those aged five years and below are thriving in chronic malnutrition. The consequence of this incidence is disastrous, considering that they are accountable for slow wound healing, high infant mortality rates, stunted growth, and low body weights. Malnutrition is also responsible for low academic level attainment since it slows down memory development as well as concentration deficit among school children.

Intervention Mechanisms

As mentioned above, poverty and overpopulation are responsible for the raised incidence of hunger in Burundi; potential intervention alternatives should seek to address the two. On these grounds, sponsoring essential services such as farming, education, and offering steadfast family planning incentives and ideas to Burundians. The sponsorship can be done by raising WFP’s monetary allocation both for supporting the vulnerable population’s current food requirements as well as for issuing them with reliable farming tools and additives to uphold their unpromising agricultural practices (Borgen, s2017; WFP, 2019). Equally, UNESCO can raise its education funding in Burundi to ensure that Burundian kids receive constant learning, which would, in return, brighten their future. Lastly, family planning incentives can help in slowing the rapid population growth in Burundi, hence limit the exhaustion of scarce resources such as land.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Burundi is facing an uphill in trying to feed its population. Its population is chronically malnourished or significantly hungry because of the enormous population, which is also poor. Resources are insufficient in the nation, and the consequences are high morbidity and mortality rates as well as low educational attainment. Alleviation of hunger in Burundi must, therefore, entail raising the funding towards the nation’s key sectors as well as educating its residents on the significance of embracing family planning. Otherwise, numerous Burundians will succumb to hunger, something that will create a worrying image, not only in Burundi but also in the world.

References

Borgen. (2017, November 30). Hunger in Burundi. BORGEN. https://www.borgenmagazine.com/hunger-burundi/

Kuo, L. (2015, September 23). Burundi’s political crisis is making one of the poorest countries on earth even worse off. Quartz Africa. https://qz.com/africa/508774/burundis-political-crisis-is-making-one-of-the-poorest-countries-on-earth-even-worse-off/

WFP. (2019, March 18). Ten facts about conflict & hunger in Burundi. World Food Program, USA. https://www.wfpusa.org/stories/10-facts-about-conflict-hunger-in-burundi/#