ACF International Network
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Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
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Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
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Action Against Hunger's programs are sustainable because of our commitment to community participation—to build local capacity and harnesses a population's energy and resources.
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Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
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Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
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Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
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Action Against Hunger occupies a unique place among international organizations: our expertise encompasses emergency relief, longer-term development, and the terrain in between.
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We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
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Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
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Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
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Where We Work

Update Against Hunger - August 17, 2005
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Field Notes: 

An Informed Commitment to Helping Others

Dear Action Against Hunger Team Member,

Knowledge is key to our ability to improve ourselves and help others. The transfer of knowledge is central to many of our programs: While we're saving children from starvation, we also teach their mothers how to feed their kids more nutritiously. When we dig a well, we also teach its beneficiaries the importance of clean water and ways to keep the source functioning and sanitary after we've gone. We train our national staff to take over expatriate positions so that we can depart and feel confident that the communities will stay healthy.

Knowledge is also key to our ability to change the world. Many of us react to emergencies emotionally: We must do something about all those starving people now. But it takes more than emotion to convince powers-that-be to change. We must become informed about the issues and the contexts in other countries. Yes, to become informed takes time and effort. But it's vital when deciding how and where to effectuate change, and it's necessary to ensure that the change will have the desired impact.

Cathy Skoula
Executive Director,
Action Against Hunger (ACF) USA

New from US Headquarter: 

The Raymond Corporation Selects ACF for $92,525 Gift

The Raymond Corporation has given us the largest single donation from a non-governmental source that Action Against Hunger-USA has ever received.

Raymond, in Greene, New York, near Binghamton, manufactures lift trucks and forklifts. In January, responding to the Asian tsunami, Raymond announced that it would donate $100 for each "electric rider truck" and $25 for each "electric walkie pallet truck" sold in January and February. In addition, whichever Raymond dealer sold a qualifying truck would match those amounts. The pledge seems small, but the total raised came to $277,575.

With the money in hand, Raymond began researching which aid organizations merited its donation. In terms of rescue efficacy and financial efficiency, Raymond narrowed the field to three worthy agencies assisting tsunami victims: Action Against Hunger, the International Rescue Committee and AmeriCares. Each organization received a check for $92,525.

We're grateful to Raymond Corp. for its generosity and for its public declaration of faith in our abilities.

News from the field: 

Media Portray Nutritional Product as Silver Bullet

Recently, several major media outlets (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal among them) have published articles about Plumpy'nut. That's the peanut-butter-like paste that contains the same nutritional value as F100 milk. We use the milk in our Therapeutic Feeding Centers to return malnourished children to vigorous health in 30 days. The gist of this flurry of media attention is that kids love Plumpy'nut, and it can be administered at home, which makes curing the kids easier and frees NGO staff to aid more kids.

The problem is, Plumpy'nut can't be used indiscriminately. First of all, you can't treat children at home if a serious disease is complicating their malnutrition. In that case, you want to monitor the children closely while you treat them medically.

Second, infants younger than six months can't digest Plumpy'nut, and evidence suggests that sometimes, and maybe always, it may be inappropriate for children younger than one year.

Third, the form of malnutrition known as kwashiorkor usually is accompanied by other medical problems that require longer stays in the nutrition centers.

And finally, children on a regimen of Plumpy'nut need to be monitored to ensure that they're following the regimen correctly and that it's working. For that reason, Action Against Hunger teams require children dosed with Plumpy'nut to return to Therapeutic Feeding Centers weekly to be weighed and measured, and teams also visit them in their homes to make certain the regimens are being observed.

Yes, Plumpy'nut is a boon to families who can't do without Mom for 30 days while she lives at a TFC, and it frees Action Against Hunger staff members to care more intensively for severely sick patients. But it's not quite the over-the-counter miracle formula that the media have suggested.

Person Profile: 

Profile AIMÉ LUKELO

Aimé Lukelo, our Food Security Coordinator in Kinshasa, D.R. Congo, is the first recipient of Action Against Hunger's new award, Staff Member of the Year, a citation that we plan to make annually. It will be presented to him at our World Food Day Gala in New York City on November 11.

Aimé began working for us in 1998 as a Food Security Surveyor before we made him a Field Trainer for a Gardening/Fishing program in Kinshasa. In 1999, he was promoted to Assistant Head of Kinshasa Food Security Projects, and then to Head of Projects. In 2001, Aimé became Assistant to the Food Security Coordinator, and in 2004, he was promoted to Food Security Coordinator, formerly an expatriate position. As a trainer and mentor, Aimé has guided several of his subordinates to similar promotions through the ranks.

Aimé orchestrated Action Against Hunger's first project in the Equator province, based on his exploratory mission. Because of a methodology that Aimé formulated, today we're able to maximize the number of beneficiaries we train at key focal points. This has led to increased food production and improved coping techniques. Four years later, Aimé conceived a new methodology that improves exchanges between different zones in Equator.

Aimé's contribution to Action Against Hunger isn't limited to food security. He organized the first training gardens in our Therapeutic Feeding Centers in Kinshasa, teaching mothers how to grow nutritious food in small spaces, and today he continues to work with our nutrition program in Katanga province. His various mini-projects include market and school rehabilitation, support for locally run nutrition treatment centers, and establishment of mini-stores for farmers. He encouraged the Katanga teams to work with communities to develop other mini-projects that construct wells and rehabilitate markets. And in Equator, Aimé has worked on our nutrition education programs, integrating them with the food security program.

Most significantly of all, Aimé believes there is strong potential in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indeed in all of Africa. Today, a difficult and violent environment constrains Africans. But their potential is certain, he says, because even under the most difficult conditions, they adapt and survive. Aimé is convinced that Action Against Hunger's most important contribution to his community is not the financing of wells and medicine but the collaboration and encouragement it extends.