wfn.org | Offering of Letters to support specific foreign aid proposal

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 11, 2003	  News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-21-71BPI{134}

NOTE: A photograph is available. 

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The annual Offering of Letters, an interfaith advocacy
campaign, will support an anti-poverty, anti-hunger program proposed last
year by President George W. Bush and to be considered this year by the U.S.
Congress.

Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization working to eliminate
hunger, is enlisting congregations from 45 denominations in a letter-writing
campaign supporting the Millennium Challenge Account, which would nearly
double the amount of money the United States gives to international
development assistance - but only to countries that meet certain eligibility
criteria.

The president proposed this means of linking greater support from the
developed nations to developing nations that are demonstrating responsibility
and achievement. In 2003, he announced that the United States will contribute
at least $1.3 billion to the new program and will incrementally increase
funding to $5 billion annually by 2006.

Through Bread for the World's campaign "Rise to the Challenge: End World
Hunger," the organization and church members are asking Congress to make sure
the Millennium Challenge Account is fully funded. The account will fund
programs to assist eligible countries in improving their economies and thus
raise the standard of living for their poor.

"After years of declining foreign assistance budgets, President Bush's
proposal is a breath of fresh air," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president
of Bread for the World. "Our campaign provides people of faith a timely
opportunity to use the gift of their U.S. citizenship to make a profound
difference in the lives of hungry and poor people around the world."

"As a nation, we spend less than one-half of 1 percent of our budget on
programs to fight world poverty and hunger," said the Rev. John McCullough,
United Methodist clergyman and head of the Church World Service staff. 

"This year's Offering of Letters provides a tremendous opportunity for us to
tell our elected representatives that we feel this level is shameful for as
wealthy and generous a nation as the United States," he added. "Just imagine
how different our world would be if ending global poverty was the first
principle of our national security interests."

Through working in more than 80 countries, Church World Service has learned
that poverty-focused development assistance can improve lives and make a
difference for entire communities, he said.

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, investments in
agricultural techniques by the United States and other donors over the past
two decades have helped make it possible to feed an extra billion people. On
the other hand, about 800 million people in the developing world are
chronically undernourished, according to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations.

Malnutrition, measles, diarrhea and dehydration - all preventable or curable
- remain the four leading causes in the deaths of 6 million children under
age 5 each year, reports the FAO and World Health Organization. At the same
time, USAID says that 3 million lives are saved annually through its
immunization programs. And the World Bank notes that infant mortality rates
worldwide have been reduced by 33 percent in the past 20 years.

The Rise to the Challenge campaign seeks to have Congress incorporate the
following provisions into the Millennium Challenge Account legislation:

7	Only the poorest countries should receive assistance from this
program.
7	Countries must use the funds to increase spending in such areas as
health, education, nutrition, clean water, sanitation, agriculture,
small-business development and infrastructure.
7	This assistance should support national poverty reduction and
development strategies designed with broad citizen participation.
7	Funding for the program in the U.S. budget should be separate from
and in addition to current funding for other development assistance programs.

"The current upsurge in concern about our own national security gives us a
political opportunity, this year, to win a stronger, bipartisan U.S.
commitment to helping reduce hunger and poverty in the world," Beckmann said.
"At this historic moment, people of faith are called to speak out, more
strongly than ever before, on behalf of the world's hungry people."

More information about the Offering of Letters campaign can be found at
www.bread.org or by calling (800) 82-BREAD. An Offering of Letters kit and
children's educational and activity materials are available. The annual
hunger report will be published in March. 
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United Methodist News Service
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