ZERO HUNGER CHALLENGE… EVERY STEP COUNTS
First Lady of Honduras Ana Hernandez, Vice-President of Honduras Rossana Guevara, the World Food Programme Representative to Honduras Pasqualina Di Sirio, and the Programme Manager of Food Security from FAO German Flores, launched the Zero Hunger Walk 2014. The efforts are an initiative under the United Nations’ “Zero Hunger Challenge: a World without Hunger”.
The Office of the First Lady and the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion have established various programmes to ensure that thousands of families in Honduras have a better quality of life. The main objective is to promote health education and food security to the most vulnerable groups. This is supported by various actions of the UN through the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)—both of which work within the humanitarian mandate of the first Millennium Development Goal to: “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015”. As a result, both agencies provide support to these initiatives which are being implemented by the Government of Honduras.
“We can all take action to establish zero hunger in Honduras, from the government and civil society to various international agencies. The Better Life Programme (El Programa Vida Mejor) is focused specifically on supporting vulnerable families, through numerous interventions to achieve zero hunger. The governments’ goal (led by the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández) is to bring 850,000 families living in poverty a better life through the implementation of various changes in their quality of life,” stated Ana Hernandez, the First Lady of Honduras.
The Zero Hunger Walk of 2014 aims to raise national and international awareness of the problem of hunger that affects about one billion people worldwide, a figure that is still unacceptable and can be reduced. The Zero Hunger Walk 2014 also carries a message of hope and solidarity. Hunger and malnutrition can also be reduced with different activities such as the ones that enable the most impoverished families’ to involve themselves in the sustainable development of their own environment as well as through family farming to ensure them a better quality of life.
“In the world and in Honduras, despite the resources available, there are people who continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Up to this day, there are adults that suffer the consequences from not being well-nourished when they were younger and even now the young who will be tomorrow’s adults, will pay the consequences of being malnourished in the future. It is said that hunger has the face of a woman, and it is true, because in an impoverished household women think of their children and husbands first, and eat only if there is any leftovers. For these reasons, it is critical to focus on women and girls for durable and substantial changes,” said the WFP Representative in Honduras. This event allows companies and families committed to help the children, the future of Honduras, to walk united for a cause.