Rio, October 14, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - In October the Zero Hunger Program attained 1 million families, assisting 5.558 million people. This information was provided by special Presidential adviser and coordinator of social mobilization for the Zero Hunger Program, Brother Beto. For him, it is possible to do away with extreme poverty, if the country moves in the direction of the structural reforms it needs, agrarian reform most of all. According to Brother Beto, Brazil is a country of great abundance, but 30% of food products are spoiled between production and commercialization.
Yesterday (13), in Rio, Frei Beto inaugurated the Solidarity Week of the Rio Food Bank, which is part of the program to combat hunger sponsored by the Rio de Janeiro Merchants Social Welfare Service (Sesc/Rio). The campaign will be held during the week in which World Nutrition Day is celebrated, on October 16.
The Presidential adviser also spoke about the unfication of social programs. "The goal is to step up assistance to the country's neediest families, whose per capita income is less than R$ 50.00 a month." According to him, the government wants to unify all its social programs in order to avoid waste, overlap, and competition among Ministries, at the same time as it expedites its assistance to the neediest segments of the population.
The unfication of social programs will embrace the entire country. According to the government's prognosis, 3.600 million families will be benefitted by December 31. "Next year, this number will grow to over 5 million families, until we are able to reach the 11.400 million families that live in a situation of indigence in the country," Brother Beto informed.
In a speech at the inauguration of Solidarity Week, Brother Beto said that "it is disgraceful for all of us human beings to begin the 21st century, after already having walked on the moon, debating whether food should or should not be transgenic and whether people should or should not be cloned, while many people die of starvation. 30 thousand children will be dead of malnutrition, today, by the time the clock strikes midnight."
The Rio Food Bank receives donations from 74 companies. All together, 60 tons of foodstuffs are distributed each month to 76 social welfare institutions that feed over 10 thousand people daily. 7 thousand of these are children. (DAS)
