About ACF:
Action Against Hunger (Action Contre La Faim – ACF) is a global humanitarian organization which originated in France and is committed to ending world hunger. The organization helps malnourished children and provides communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.
In 2019, Action Against Hunger worked in 51 countries around the world with more than 6,000 employees and volunteers helping 13.6 million people in need.
Action Against Hunger was established in 1979 by a group of French doctors, scientists, and writers. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alfred Kastler served as the organization’s first chairman. Currently, Mumbai-based businessman and philanthropist Ashwini Kakkar serves as International President of Action Against Hunger network.
The group initially provided assistance to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, famine-stricken Ugandan communities, and Cambodian refugees in Thailand. It expanded to address additional humanitarian concerns in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and elsewhere during the 1980s and 1990s. Action Against Hunger’s Scientific Committee pioneered the therapeutic milk formula (F100), now used by all major humanitarian aid organizations to treat acute malnutrition. Early results showed that treatment with F100 has the capacity to reduce the mortality rate of severely malnourished children to below 5%, with a median hospital fatality rate quoted of 23.5%. A few years later, the therapeutic milk was repackaged as ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), a peanut-based paste packaged like a power bar. These bars allow for the treatment of malnutrition at home and do not require any preparation or refrigeration.
The international network currently has headquarters in six countries – France, Spain, the United States, Canada, Italy, the UK. Its four main areas of work include nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, and advocacy.
The integrated approaches with various sectors of intervention are:
- Nutrition and Health
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
- Food Security & Livelihoods
- Emergency Response
