Food For The Poor At InfoPoverty Conference
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 31, 2009) – The work of Food For The Poor was highlighted in the recent InfoPoverty World Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The March 18-20 conference focused on development in poor countries, with emphasis on alleviating suffering through education and health initiatives.
A representative for Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization serving the Caribbean and Latin America, was among those who addressed the conference and spoke about what the organization is doing to break the cycle of poverty through education.
An affordable computer distribution program is one such project. The organization’s plan is to supply vocational centers, training facilities and schools in poor communities with the equipment needed to provide students a life-changing opportunity to enter the workforce prepared with highly marketable skills.
Food For The Poor already has shipped 1,495 monitors for schools and training centers in Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana and the Dominican Republic, and 560 more will be shipped to Nicaragua by mid-April. By installing workstations using a shared system — with seven monitors attached to one central processing unit — FFP is able to cut costs on both equipment and electricity.
“This is a very real commitment to helping people in these countries engage in sustainable development in health, education, food production, and economic and social development, thereby alleviating poverty and reaching toward the Millennium Development Goals,” said John Steffens, executive director of the Public Service and InfoPoverty institutes.
Steffens organized the conference, which included other nonprofits as well as corporations such as Siemens.
“Food For the Poor is honored to be included in this high-level discussion of issues that are so important to our mission and the people we serve,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “We not only want to meet the more immediate needs of those who need food and water, we want to provide a means for sustainable change and break the cycle for those who have so long been ensnared in poverty.”
The computer program is funded through the generous donors of Food For The Poor, which has an ambitious goal of putting these computers in all the schools and community centers it sponsors. Those who want to donate can go to www.foodforthepoor.org/computers or call 1-800-427-9104.
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, serves the poor of the Caribbean, and Latin America. Food For The Poor provides food, emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, basic housing, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. More than 96 percent of all donations received go toward programs that help the poor. For more information, visit www.foodforthepoor.org.
Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Public Relations Manager
954-427-2222 x 6614
[email protected]
