The World Food Program (WFP), a United Nations Aid Agency tasked with combating hunger around the world, has launched a YouTube campaign to raise public awareness about this growing problem.

Yesterday, the WFP launched a contest for "edgy 30 or 60 second videos which will make the online community buzz about global hunger," reiterating that hunger kills a child every five seconds in our cruel world. The best five videos will be posted on YouTube and the maker of the winning video will receive a trip to one of the agency's relief operations. 

We always thought that winners of such competitions were supposed to receive nice prizes, awards, cash, or at least gratitude and recognition, but if you ask me, a trip for two to an impoverished, disease ridden hellhole doesn't really qualify as much of a prize. Well, some people might beg to differ, for example, those who ran Stalin's gulags.

You can already see the Agency's own video on www.youtube.com/hungerbytes. It shows footage of gluttonous people in eating competitions, eating like there is no tomorrow, with The Beatles singing "Piggies" in the background. Back in 2005 the Agency launched a video game called "Food Force" in which players were tasked with delivering food to hunger stricken people.

The deadline for the competition is July 2008, and, according to the WFP's own statistics, hunger would have claimed at least 3.8 million young lives by then. Judging by the July deadline the WFP doesn't really seem to be in a hurry to help out. Oh well, at least it gives the word "deadline" new meaning, literally.

For more info visit the WFP's site, here.