Italians were given a new way to count the cost of hunger on Monday when the Government dedicated its first commemorative Euro coin to the United Nations World Food Programme, as it began its fifth decade of delivering food aid to the worlds hungry.
– It is an honour for WFP to be selected, and for this opportunity to generate more awareness of humanitarian work and the fight against global hunger, said James T. Morris, Executive Director of WFP, warmly welcoming the commemorative coin.
– Everyone has a coin in their hand at some point of the day – what better way to remind Europeans of the 800 million hungry people who often do not know where their next meal is coming from, added he.
WFP, headquartered in Rome, began delivering emergency food aid to victims of an earthquake in Iran in 1962. Since then, the agency has become the worlds largest humanitarian organisation, providing food to 1,2 billion of the worlds poorest people.
In 2003 alone, the agencys food aid reached the hands and mouths of over 100 million people in 81 countries, from Iraq to Ethiopia.
The front of the new two Euro coin, legal currency across the Eurozone, is engraved with a globe and the words “World Food Programme” as well as displaying three key components of food aid – maize, rice and wheat.
Until this year, Euro coins carried a European front with a national symbol on the back. However, since January 2004, Eurozone countries can dedicate the national face of “their” coin to a specific event or cause.
Sixteen million of the minted commemorative coins will be circulated.
A special version of the new two Euro coin is available upon request from WFP in return for a minimum donation of 10 Euros – enough to guarantee a nutritious school lunch for more than 60 hungry children in the worlds poorest countries.
Kilde: www.wfp.dk
