The World Economic Forum (WEF) put forward an initiative on
Friday at the ongoing summer meeting in northeastern China's port
city of Dalian to help children suffering from hunger in the
underdeveloped countries.
The project, called "Table for Two", aims to address hunger in
the underdeveloped world and obesity in the developed countries at
the same time.
"Every time someone eats a healthy meal at the cafeterias or
restaurants of a company participating in the project, 20 US cents
should be donated to fund a healthy school meal in poor countries,"
said James Kondo, president of the Japanese Health Policy Institute
and principal in charge of the initiative.
One billion people in the world are suffering from hunger
including 400 million children while another one billion are
suffering from obesity, he said.
To support the initiative, healthy means are offered at the
ongoing Young Global Leaders Annual Summit held in Dalian from
September 4 to 8 and Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New
Champions.
It is estimated that some 2,000 people participated in both
events and thus the fund donated from every lunch could support
9,000 school meals, equivalent to meals for about 45 children
throughout a year.
The program had been tentatively carried out in Japan for six
months?and many multi-nationals participated in it, said James
Kondo. Employees of Japan Airlines had collected 200,000 Japanese
yen in ten days for those people in hunger. The fund would be
transferred by the UN World Food Program.
WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab highly appreciated the
project, calling for WEF members to participate in it.
The member companies have an average of 10,000 employees, if ten
percent of them participate in the program, one million children
can be fed every day, Schwab said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)
