Apr 29, 2008

AAI combating global hunger

A commentary by Jeff Allen from One World was recently featured on Yahoo News. He talks about how individual NGOs, such as AAI are taking responsibility to aid the hungry populations in the parts of the world where we/they are already working. Our director, Al Santoli was also quoted in Allen's commentary.

In powerful overview of the situation, our friend Al Santoli at the Asia America Initiative summed it up this way:

"A new Cold War is taking shape, around energy and food. The world intelligentsia has been asleep at the wheel. While we rage over global warming, global hunger has swept under the radar."
But as Al Santoli pointed out to me the other day, even $1 billion -- divided by 100 million people -- is only $10 per person-in-need worldwide. And that's just the beginning of the crisis, and it assumes a fundraising goal that the WFP is unlikely to meet. Individual NGOs are taking responsibility for aiding the hungry populations in the parts of the world where they are already working. The Asia America Initiative, for example, has a long-established presence in the Sulu province of the Philippines, where they've been doing peace building and development work since 2002. Al told me that $10-50 can feed a family in the region for a short period of time. About $100 can buy the seeds and build the irrigation needed for them to be able to feed themselves long into the future. Right now, both initiatives are needed, and AAI is helping to make the links between Americans who want to help and those who need help far away.
For the complete article, see here. 

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