wfn.org | Children first, LWF general secretary says

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Leading German donor agency gives world's children a chance

STUTTGART, Germany/GENEVA, 7 December 1998 (lwi) - The general secretary
of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Ismael Noko, has called for the
respect, protection and fostering of children as they are "our future."

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of  the 1998 "Bread for the World"
Appeal Campaign in Stuttgart on November 29, Noko said: "Children are our
future. If we allow them to be destroyed by hunger, brutality and abuse we
have no future."

He pointed to the great number of children in the world, who are persuaded
to take part in armed conflict thereby suffering torture and death. They
are sexually abused and victims of "the growing industry of child
prostitution and child pornography," the LWF general secretary noted. Many
are exploited as child labourers and uprooted as refugees with or without
parents. He suggested only one criterion for priorities for humanitarian
assistance, - "choices which fail to address the situation of children are
the wrong choices."

Noko, however, cautioned that "compassion fatigue" is unfortunately a
common condition these days as there are so many images of human tragedy
and suffering in the world "mostly caused by human beings." This is also
reflected in the "record low levels of Official Development Assistance,"he
added.

The motto of the 40th campaign of the German donor agency, "Bread for the
World" is "Give Children a Chance". At the launching, which took place on
the first Sunday of Advent according to tradition, other notable speakers
included the former German President Richard von Weizscker, the president
of the Social Service Agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany
(EKD), Jrgen Gohde and the Landesbischof of Wrttemberg Eberhardt Renz.

In his address, Weizscker lamented that the resolutions taken eight years
ago at the United Nations World Summit for Children have had only little
effect. Renz called for the cancellation of debt for the world's poorest
countries, in order not to increase the gap between the rich and the poor.

Hans-Otto Hahn, Director of "Bread for the World", recalled the creation
of the donor agency in 1959. Helmut Gollwitzer, professor of theology in
Berlin, called upon Germans to help the hungry in the world, as a sign of
the gratitude for the aid Germans received from overseas after the Second
World War.

"Nobody should surpass the expression of the living compassion of our
people," he said. When the campaign began, DM 14 million (US $8,2 million)
was collected. In 1997, Bread for the World realised 120.5 million DM (US
$ 70.8 million). Since the campaign began in 1959, about DM 2.4 billion
(US$ 1.41 billion) has been raised.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/