Tuesday, June 02, 2009

ROTARY WORLD FOOD PROGRAM

Rotary is participating in efforts to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In May, the organization highlighted its work to meet Goal 4, reducing child mortality, by discussing hunger and the Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger (REACH) partnership with Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP).

About 852 million people around the world today are malnourished. In an interview in Rotary's Global Outlook supplement, Sheeran explained that "more people are having difficulty gaining access to affordable, adequate amounts of food due to a number of factors: high prices of food and fuel and continued market volatility, and now the global financial crisis, which could drive the numbers of hungry upwards as incomes fall around the world."

Sheeran believes ending hunger is achievable, though. "We have the capability to do so, and I think we just have to raise awareness that, if we make the decision, we can end hunger in the world," she said.

Rotary club members can be part of the solution, said Sheeran. "WFP partners with Rotary, especially at the local level, where Rotary's knowledge of how to move communities and work with people to get the right thing done is almost unparalleled."

Rotary and WFP have officially worked together since 1997.

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