McCullough re-elected to head global humanitarian agency

["Lesley Crosson" <LCrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

McCullough re-elected to head global humanitarian agency
NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2011--Church World Service begins 2011 with the Rev.
John L. McCullough re-elected to lead the global humanitarian agency as
executive director and CEO for four more years. 
Over the last four years, McCullough, who has led the agency since
2000, initiated a sweeping vision that challenges CWS to "dramatically
expand its capacity and its impact in the fight to end hunger and
poverty.” 
The new vision, called CWS 2020, empowers CWS--already a significant
presence among hunger fighting agencies--to intensely focus on hunger
and nutrition in its work with grassroots organizations in the United
States and several regions of the world 
In recent years the agency has operated in an environment  McCullough
describes as "volatile", where major disasters, threatened budget cuts,
huge numbers of displaced people, a collapsed economy and rising food
prices throughout the world pulled the agency in many directions, 
"We responded where we were needed during those times of widespread
crisis, which included the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami in Japan, the
drought in the Horn of Africa, flooding in Pakistan, severe storms in
the U.S. and massive displacement of people. Now we intensify our focus
on hunger and nutrition so that we will have an even greater impact in
our work with the most vulnerable." 
With hunger as its key focus, CWS--which celebrated 65 years of service
in 2011--partners with grassroots organizations in vulnerable
communities throughout the world to address both the immediate and the
underlying causes of hunger.  The agency's global development programs,
ranging from systems to improve access to safe water to agricultural
co-ops to insure adequate supplies of nutritious food in vulnerable
communities, are designed so that local communities are able to manage
and sustain them independently.  
McCullough also has led CWS's advocacy efforts around issues ranging
from immigration reform and climate change to proposed U.S. budget cuts
for domestic programs and foreign aid. 
As lawmakers continue to wrangle over the budget, McCullough says he
has wrestled with the question of whether the global community is on the
verge of a new feudalism:  
 
"When so few control so much and so many have so little, how can we not
acknowledge the enormity of the gap and feel our own impoverishment. Are
we more than just witnesses to the emergence of a new social, political,
and economic order – an intentional triangulation resulting in the
scaling back of the middle class, and a dramatic expansion and
dependency of the poor? Could we, years from now, be accused of being
complicit in the emerging of a new social pyramid?” 
 
There is no justification, McCullough adds, for 400 million hungry
children in the world and millions more left under nourished. I find no
satisfactory explanation for why urban refugees now form the largest
migration in cities on every continent-- already some 36 million
desperate for jobs, security, and stability. And I am more than
perturbed that we allow people, especially women and the girl child to
be disregarded, disempowered, abused, and used.”
McCullough believes the CWS 2020 exercise in self-examination and
reflection by the agency's 37 member denominations, its staff and its
global partners has helped the CWS emerge as an stronger entity,
reaffirmed in its commitment to eradicate hunger and poverty. 
"The world has changed from what it was when CWS began working 65 years
ago and our work has evolved in response to the world we live in," says
McCullough. "We now have a bigger job than ever in terms of the
challenges facing the hungry and the poor in the U.S. and abroad.  CWS
stands confident and poised to respond in the best tradition of the
church, which sees need and stays the course until that need is met."
CWS is a global relief, development and refugee assistance agency
supported by 37 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denomi
nations in the
United States and by private donations.  The agency sponsors more than
1500 CWS CROP Hunger Walks each year in communities across the U.S.,
which raise millions of dollars to support domestic and global
hunger-fighting programs. 
 
Media Contacts
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
 
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