World must 'pull together' to end hunger, stunting among children

Noting "[a]round 170 million children under the age of five are stunted" globally, actor and UNICEF ambassador Mia Farrow writes in a CNN opinion piece, "For too long, stunting has been a silent crisis -- a personal tragedy for each family," but "the suffering of some 170 million children constitutes a global catastrophe that calls for an urgent response." Traveling with UNICEF for more than a decade, Farrow says, "Wherever there is poverty, it is the children who pay the highest price." She continues, "At this moment, one million children throughout the Sahel region of Africa are at risk of dying." Farrow highlights progress made in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake "caus[ed] hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries" in the country and writes, "There is more work to do, but we can see that even in challenging circumstances it is possible to work together to ensure that the world's most vulnerable children, pregnant women, and mothers have access to food and drinkable water." She concludes, "In the name of some 170 million children, let's pull together and end the obscenity of hunger and stunting" (10/16).