São Paulo, 9/7/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Speaking at the inauguration of the NGO, "Zero Hunger Aid," president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva praised the business community for setting up the organization and called on business leaders to support other social programs. "Brazil needs me, but it needs you even more. You can do more than I can do," said Lula. The president went on to say that the gesture by the business community could be a landmark in the fight against misery in Brazil.

The executive president of Zero Hunger Aid, Antoninho Marmo Trevisan, reports that some 100 of Brazil's biggest firms, worth half the country's GDP, had joined together to form the organization. The president of honor will be the First Lady, Marisa Leticia da Silva.

In a playful mood, Lula said that if he had known when he launched Zero Hunger that it was capable of bringing together half the country's GDP, he would have been a candidate for the presidency of the organization himself. Lula told the gathering that Zero Hunger was already responsible for changes in the first city it operated in, Guaribas, Piaui, where the number of sick children had been reduced and the infant mortality rate improved.

With regard to the strike by federal civil servants, Lula said he believes the right to strike is an inalienable right of all workers. But he pointed out that this strike was in protest against a social security reform that will benefit workers themselves in the future. "Social Security reform will make it possible for Brazil to pay retirement benefits 10, 15 or 20 years from now. It will ensure that the rights of our children and grandchildren are protected," the president concluded. (AB)