SAP Feeding Knowledge

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization and the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. It reaches some 90 million people in an average of 80 countries each year, using food aid to meet emergency needs and support economic development and social development. Since it was founded in 1963, WFP has fed more than 1.4 billion of the world’s poorest people, and invested more than US$30 billion in development and emergency relief. It is funded completely by voluntary donations.

In addition to emergency work, WFP feeds more than 20 million schoolchildren in more than 70 countries with school meals and take-home rations. Child enrollment increased on average by 14 percent in schools with WFP school feeding programmes. The donation that SAP is making on behalf of its employee volunteers will be directed to these school feeding programmes.

The World Food Programme has a great deal of content on its website, including a news section and photo galleries that show the difference they’re making.

Find out how your language skills can feed the world on http://www.freerice.com/. This website offers a fun vocabulary test with 50 different levels. For each right word that players guess, 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program.

I tried the test on my own and was surprised that the vocabulary was quite difficult. Words Iike scrape, beckon or lumber were thrown at me and I had no idea what they meant. After a few tries and a number of wrong answers, the site decided to change the vocabulary level for me. The words got easier and I ended up donating 400 grains of rise in less than 5 minutes. It was great to see how each right word filled the plates of rise, and to learn a lot of new words. So play today, help feed a hungry person and improve your English-skills!

(Posted by Iris Armbruester)

… about breaking the cycle of hunger by supporting small farmers, and procuring food aid.

… and …

On Sunday, the 27th of January the World Economic Forum in Davos ended. During the Forum, More than 2,500 people, including business and political leaders as well as heads of international organizations, discussed the major issues facing the world. The fights against hunger was one key topics for the participants. Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, challenged the leaders to push and support these topics with high priority. He spoke critically about the high food prices and warned about the consequences for poor countries in global economic turmoil. Please follow the link for further reading. Bill Gates also called for more sense of responsibility, to help the poor around the world. (Link to the article)

From my point of view it’s nice to see that the world economic and political leaders take the time to speak about the grievances in the world and are willing to fight against hunger. I really hope that they put their words into further action!

(posted by Iris Armbruester)

All children around the world have dreams about their futures. Boys in Germany for example, often dream about becoming an “engine driver” or “aviator”. Girls dream of becoming an “animal doctor” or an “actress”. I wanted to be a “danseuse” and now I am working for SAP!

It doesn’t matter what our dreams were, and if these specific dreams came true, because children in Germany or other developed countries normally have the chance to fulfill their dreams or even have the chance to change them.

The children in the following video are from Bangladesh or Nicaragua and also have dreams about their futures, which are not really different to ours. They want to be “a rich and educated man” or more specificly a “doctor” or “pilot”. Regrettably these children do not have the same chance to fulfill their dreams, which is not fair! So in that sense, our “adult’s dream” should be to give all childrens’ dreams the same chance to come true!

(Posted by Iris Armbruester)

People around the world do many strange and dangerous things for causes which most of us do not understand. They climb up high mountains; swim through oceans and cross deserts by camel, but the following strong guys are doing it to raise awareness for a good cause! Click here to meet the “Fight hunger champions”!!!

Every week the UN World Food Program announces the worlds Hunger Hotspots. Watch out for the high profiled emergencies in the latest update on February 19, 2008.

Bereits seit einigen Jahren steigen die Preise für Getreide kontinuierlich an. Dies trifft die Ärmsten Länder besonders heftig. Jedoch konnten bisher zumindest Hilfsorganisationen wie das Welternährungsprogramm der Vereinten Nationen dieses Problem einigermaßen bewältigen und die Armen unterstützen. Doch damit scheint nun Schluss zu sein. Am vergangenen Montag rief das UN WFP um Hilfe. Auch ihnen reichen die Mittel nun nicht mehr, da seit Mitte 2007 die Lebensmittelpreise um 40% gestiegen sind und weitere Steigerungen prognostiziert werden. Die Gründe hierfür beschreibt Josett Sheeran (Direktorin des WFP) der Süddeutschen Zeitung (27.2.08) wie folgt:

„Wir erleben gerade den perfekten Sturm”, sagt sie, denn mehrer Faktoren verstärken sich gegenseitig. Es gibt eine große Nachfrage nach Fleisch in China und Indien, die den Getreidebedarf in der Viehzucht erhöht. Hinzu kommt der hohe Ölpreis, der die Kosten für Dünger und Transport steigen lässt. Und der Ölpreis führt auch dazu, dass immer mehr Getreide für die Produktion von Biokraftstoff genutzt wird. Darüber ist die Welthungerhilfe so besorgt, dass sie fordert: „Erst der Teller, dann der Tank!”

Lösungen für dieses Problem gibt es momentan noch nicht, im Gegenteil. Fakt ist, dass sich die Hungersituation verschlimmert und auf Länder ausbreitet, die bisher nicht so stark betroffen waren. Im schlimmsten Fall müssen sogar Lebensmittelrationen gekürzt werden. Morgen wird sich das Welternährungsprogramm der Vereinten Nationen zu einer Krisensitzung in Rom treffen, um einen erneuten Spendenaufruf zu formulieren und Lösungsmöglichkeiten zu finden!

Weitere Links: Financial Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung

… should help the UN WFP to end child hunger by 2015. Watch the campaign videos through the following link; they are really good and creative! Below you`ll find the winning movie, made by Kristen Palana, which was and is used to publicize ´Walk the world 2007´ and ´the one in 2008´ on June 1st.

The UN World Food Programme needs money, which is not new, but this time they need it very urgent and fast to avoid the rationing of food aid.

During the Easter Holidays, they called for help again and pleaded governments to donate $500m until May 1 to compensate the constantly rising food prices. Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, said in FT on March 24, 2008: “We urge your government to be as generous as possible in helping us to close this gap - which stood at $500m on February 25 and has been growing daily.”

Further reading to this topic you will find through following links:

Financial Times; Financial Times Deutschland

As already mentioned in former blog posts, are the prices for food as maize, cerials and rice rising frequently. This steady increase enlarges the danger of unrests in Africa, especially since hunger not any longer hurts only the countryside areas. Urban districts are also affected by now.

Josette Sheeran identifies these changes as the “new face of hunger. Rising prices means that people in the cities which just eight months ago did not need food aid need it now.” (FT on April 4th) By the way, this in a situation, were the WFP doesn’t have enough money at all. (see blog March 26, 08)

She further told the FT that prices of goods rise much faster than wages. This leads to store shelves packed with food but people are unable to buy it. She pointed out that “Now it is clear to everyone that we are not facing just a short-term problem but a structural change in the price of food, there is no such thing as normal prices any more.”

This new situation let arise the fear of unrests. Kanayo Nwanze, vice president of the UN International Fund for Agriculture says in the FT that food riots could become a common feature. “The social unrest we have seen in places such as Burkina Faso, Senegal or Cameroon may become common in other places in Africa.”

In April last year, the crises of increasing food prices already led countries like e. g. Ethiopia to create a grain stabilisation programme. Hope remains that activities such as this will be able to stem the onslaught of famine.

(Further reading on Financial Times)

This question, asked by the UN WFP is easily answered. The continuous rising food prices hit the people in poorest regions most. While we can give up a dessert or meat once or twice a week, ride more by bicycle as driving cars or at least searching for an additional job, is the choice of people which earn less than US$1 a day, much harder.

Watch out the following movie to see how the poorest are affected:

Link to the movie!

Since the Cyclone Nargis swept across southern Myanmar on May 3, only ten percent of the urgently needed food and pharmaceuticals have reached the affected regions by now, said Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations. If more help does not arrive immediately, the danger of infectious diseases is dramatically increasing each day. Given that, Ban Ki-moon addressed the country’s government as follows: “I call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar [Burma] to put its people’s lives first. It must do all it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious.” (Further reading on Financial Times, May 13th 2008)

The UN WFP already managed to distribute food aid in the country. Last weekend, on Saturday May 11, they continued with their help and spread rice and 38 tons of high-energy-biscuits to the worst affected parts of Irrawaddy delta. Please have a look at the recovery efforts and latest news .

We’ll keep you posted about how SAP will support the affected people in Myanmar, later on this blog.

As mentioned in former blogposts, the UN WFP has called on governments all over the world to compensate with their donations the dramatically increased costs caused by high food prices.

Last week, the WFP has met this extraordinary appeal with a donation of $500 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To find out which other countries have donated and whom or where the money will help, please have a look on wfp.org.

The website www.freerice.com, as presented in the Blog-Post of February 5th, 2008, has grown amazingly since its launch in October 2007. More than 500.000 people each day use the vocabulary-site to improve their English-skills by simultaneously supporting the UN World Food Program with grains of rice. Paid is this rice by sponsor-companies, like YUM! and Unilever.

Users of the site are school children, students and office workers around the world. All together they could achieve 1.8 billion right answers, which are around 37 billion grains of corn and 3.75 million meals for the hungry in the world. This rice is helping in the following regions: Myanmar, Uganda, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

This website, recently selected by Time magazine as one of the top 50 websites of the year, is really innovative and a great way to combine education with the fight against hunger. So come and play and be a part of this great initiative!

The World Food Programme recently announced ‘hunger´s global hotspots’ and gives an overview of the hunger-related problems in specific countries. It also depicts WFP´s efforts to improve the situation against the background of the global increase in food and energy prices.

Food for A Better Life

David is 7 years old. He is attending second grade at the “Concentración Educativa El Salvador”, a small school located in El Pozón, a poor and marginal area located in Cartagena, Colombia.

David is one of Colombia´s over 3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) which makes the displacement crisis in Colombia one of the worst in the world. Most of the IDPs live in city slums where unworthy physical and social infrastructure, lack of labor opportunities and stigmatization make it extremely difficult for them to satisfy their basic needs.

In David´s case, his neighborhood is mainly inhabited by displaced people from different regions of Colombia - people from Chocó, from Antioquia, from Bolivar and from all over the country. David knows he is displaced, but he doesn’t remember the time when he and his family came to Cartagena. He says he was too small when his parents decided to flee because of the unsafe situation in his hometown Corozal. His mother is constantly looking for a job. Sometimes she finds short shifts as a maid, but this is very unusual. Most of the time she is at home taking care of David and his brother and sister. David´s father has an informal job at Cartagena´s market. He moves bulks from one truck to another. It is a hard and low-paid work. In a good day he can make two or three dollars, but normally after a 12 hours shift he barely receives one dollar.

Despite all these hardships, David is a happy child. He enjoys going to school every day. It is a place where he can play and learn where he has a lot of friends. Best of all, he and his 110 schoolmates receive a nice meal every day, thanks to the World Food Programme’s School Feeding initiative which is supported by the SAP Developer Network and the Business Process Expert Community Recognition Program.

David knows that with education everything is possible. That’s why he and his parents are proud of the fact that he is going to classes every morning.

Education is everything

Erika is 10 years old. She attends fourth grade at the Roberto García Peña Primary School, in Girón, province of Santander, Colombia.

Erika lives with her family in a very poor household. However, she says they share a beautiful house, because her mother keeps it comfortable and clean. Her father lost an arm in an accident a long time ago, even before she was born. After that, he has constantly been struggling trying to find a job.

The family used to live in a small town up north of the province. Her father owned a small farm and they had a decent and normal life. But unfortunately, armed conflict in the region forced them to move out and then they settled in Angulito neighborhood, a marginal area in Girón.

Erika goes to the school every single morning. Similar to David, she and her sister receive a daily meal provided by WFP School Feeding Programme.

“Having the lunch at school is great, because we don’t feel we have to be begging for food”, explains Erika. For that reason, the sisters can go to classes regularly, without spending precious time earning an additional income for their family’s survival.

Erika is happy to have the opportunity of learning. “Education is everything” she says. “With education you can compete, you can improve. We have a lot of needs, and probably education is the only way out of this situation. My parents are making an extraordinary effort to keep me studying, but we are sure it is worth the investment”.

After school, in the afternoon, Erika baby-sits a small child. “It is not a proper job”, she says, “but in my family we appreciate the extra income. It is not too much, but is enough to help. When I grow up I want to be a doctor, so I can help people. My father didn’t have the chance to see a good doctor when he lost his arm, and that’s why I want to be a doctor. Doctors help, and I definitely want to help.”

Erika looks nice and neat with the school uniform. She says that it was a gift from a lady her mother knows. “Being poor is one thing, but we still have dignity”, adds Erika with a big smile. “As my mom says, poverty is a state of mind. We have needs, but we are working to fulfill those needs. That’s why I am going to school!”

To give you a first-hand impression of the World Food Programme’s School Feeding initiative and its beneficial effect for the children of internally displaced families in Colombia, this podcast is very helpful: SchoolFeedingColombia.mp3.

What becomes clear is that fighting hunger and enhancing the children´s education go hand in hand - to the long-term benefit of not only the children but of the whole country.

If you would like to learn more about the political situation in Colombia and the fate of internally displaced people (IDPs), please have a look at the documents of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the Brookings Institution and the International Crisis Group.

Raising awareness about the fact that more than 850 million people in the world suffer from hunger is the aim of a new campaign launched by the World Food Programme. The contest has been set up in order to find a top-rated viral video which creates buzz, gets people to talk and learn more about hunger. You may take a look at the Top 5 videos so far and make your own decision which one you like most!

The global rise of food prices certainly made it harder for international help agencies to tackle the problem of hunger and the far-reaching negative effects for individuals and communities affected by it.

However, the World Food Programme’s updated figures about the impact of a 10€ donation (equalling not even 15$) illustrate that even such a little amount of money has a significant impact.

The contribution of 10€…

• Feeds one school child for 63 days in Laos.
• Feeds one school child for 70 days in Colombia
• Feeds one school child for 73 days in Nicaragua.
• Feeds one school child for 77 days in Ghana.
• Feeds one school child for 92 days in Kenya.
• Could feed one school child for 112 days in Ethiopia.

If these facts encourage you to donate you are most welcome to do so!

World Food Programme warns about a change for the worse

Serious droughts are exacerbating the food situation in the Horn of Africa region which is already tense due to high food and fuel prices. As a report by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) shows, more than 10 million people are affected by a drought in southern, central, western and north-eastern Ethiopia. According to the WFP’s observation, crop production is decreasing and livestock are dying. As a consequence, rural people are forced to migrate to towns for cheap labor, or to sell firewood and charcoal.

Another consequence is widespread child malnutrition which is one of the key problems in the region that needs to be tackled. That’s why support of school feeding programs is so significant for the overall development of the affected communities.

To give you an impression of how people try to cope with hardships connected to the food shortage, the story of Daniel Gedisha, an Ethiopian farmer, is a telling example. He has to deal with successive failures of seasonal rains which have destroyed his crops. Basically, the survival of his family would be threatened if it wasn’t for outside assistance - much of it provided by the WFP.