Rio, October 14, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - "It is disgraceful for all of us human beings to enter the 21st century, after having already 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 are starving to death. 30 thousand children will be dead from malnutrition, today, by the time the clock strikes midnight." This affirmation was made yesterday (13) by special Presidential adviser and coordinator of Social Mobilization for the Zero Hunger Program, Brother Beto, at the opening of the "Solidarity Week" campaign launched by the Rio Food Bank, which is part of the program to combat hunger sponsored Rio de Janeiro Merchants Social Welfare Service (Sesc/Rio).

Following the inauguration of the campaign, Brother Beto spoke about the unification of social programs. "The goal is to step up services to the country's neediest families, those whose monthly earnings are less than R$ 50.00 per capita," he said. Brother Beto recalled that, in October, the Zero Hunger Program reached a million families, helping 5.558 million people.

According to the coordinator, the government wants to unify all social programs in order to avoid waste, overlap, and competition among Ministries and, at the same time, expedite its assistance to the neediest segments of the population. The unification of social programs will attain the entire country and, according to the government's prognosis, will be assisting 3.600 million families by December 31. "Next year this number will be expanded 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 concluded. (DAS)