Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 November 2005 — Page 4
PAGE A4
THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005
Spirit & Place Festival Humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina shares his experience as the manager of a hotel in Rwanda. During the massacre of over 200,000 Tutsis' by Hutu militias, Rusesabagina provided shelter for more than 1,200 people in his hotel. Rusesabagina’s efforts led to the motion picture "Hotel Rwanda" starring actor Don Cheadle. Rusesabagina’s visit to Indy was a part of the Spirit & Place Festival. St. Luke United Methodist Church hosted the event. (Photos/J. Hurst)
NEW LOCATION Miracles on 42nd St. Salon & Spa [email protected] * 670 E. 42ND St. 46205
SERVICES
Message Therapy - $30.00 per I /2 hour Manicures / Pedicures $37.00 • Skin Care Make up • Eyebrow Arching • Eyelashes
*j
I 0% OFF SERVICE - First time visit
Call- 283-4263 OR cell 340-99 I 8 Mon-Fri 9-6 • Sat 8am - I 2 noon
Indianapolis Lighthouse Charter School Has Pre-K education
= Lighthouse « \ Academies A 3
•p-
Our Pre-K program offers: • small class sizes • developmental^ appropriate curriculum including Saxon Math and Open Court Reading • an atmosphere conductive for every
child to iearn
• mandatory uniform policy
Enrolling now! Call today! (317)351-1534 1780SloanAve Indianapolis, Indiana 46203 I block west of Emerson and Raymond, on the south side
BACK HOME AGAIN BE A PART OF THE BLUEPRINT TO END HOMELESSNESS. TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE LIVES.
WWW.CHIPINDY.ORC; COALITION FOR HOMELESSNESS INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION
Make a difference in the life of a child.
During this busy holiday season, people buzz from store to store in search of the perfect gift. But for some Indiana children, the perfect gift can't be bought in any store—they need a nurturing, loving home. And you can help. Whether you're interested in becoming a foster or adoptive parent or making a charitable gift, you can brighten children's spirits not only during the holidays, but throughout
the coming year.
Visit villageskids.org to view the Wish List for
The Villages' children and families.
800-874-6880 villageskids.org
Villages*^ Nurture a Child and You Change the World!
HUNGER ► Continued from Page 1
"Our job is to help people understand about the crises that exist in places that don't make the front page every day," says Indianapolis native and U.N. World Food
Program Executive Director Jim Morris.
executive director of the WFP. “Eighteen thousand children will die today because of hunger. That is comparable to 75 747’s full of children crashing today. And it happens tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that. “We need to have a movement comparable to the environmental movement or the civil rights movement, saying it is no longer acceptable in this world for children to be hungry.” Such frustrated, bold words are understandable coming from the leader of the World Food Program, which fed 113 million people in 80 countries last year, maximizing the voluntary contributions it receives from nations, corporations and individuals. Less predictable is that such an impassioned appeal would come from someone like Morris, who spoke to The Indianapolis Recorder while in Bloomington to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University. Balding and 62 years old with a ruddy complexion, the Terre Haute native Morris looks more likely to be headed to a Chamber of Commerce luncheon than to WFP headquarters in Rome, much less drought-stricken southern Africa. In fact, Morris attended plenty of power lunches in a career that began as chief of staff for Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar during the late 1960s. Morris then worked for Lilly Endowment as president before becoming chairman and CEO of IWC Resources and Indianapolis Water Co. But Morris says that a career as a Republican and businessman was good preparation for his work at the WFP, where he was named executive director in April 2002. “You never know what is around the corner for your life,” he admits with a laugh. “On the one hand, nothing could prepare you to do what I do. On the other hand, everything prepared me for what I do now. Certainly my years with Lugar and my years with the endowment caused me to understand the problems of poor people and the problems of people at risk and the issues of vulnerable children. I tried to be a person who did whatever I could wherever I was for people at risk. “My job now is a management job, a leadership job, afund-raisingjob. I experienced a lot as a person with enormous responsibility, dealing with tough issues, dealing with confrontation, dealingwith political dynamics. A lot of what I’ve done civically is being involved with fund-raising. I’ve raised lots of money for lots of things. That’s what I do now -1 raise lots of money for hungry people around the world.” Other anti-hunger advocates agree that Morris’ Main Street skills and connections are well-suited to the challenge of confronting global poverty. “Jim brings a kind of Midwestern practicality and management sense to these issues,” says Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. In today’s Washington, Morris’ Republican bona fides are a huge advantage, and Beckmann cites Morris’ ties to now-Sen. Lugar, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and
to the Bush administration. “President Bush has spoken out several times on hunger issues, and I think Jim had a lot to do with that. Jim Morris has a very broad vision for changing the world, and having him in Rome has been a big help to a lot ofhungry people,”
Beckmann says. Being a U.S. po-
litical insider can pose complications for Morris, how-
ever. When he goes
to see government leaders on World
Food Program busi-
ness - asking for
donations from the
wealthy countries and coordinating distribution with the poor ones - Morris is sometimes asked to defend or explain
U.S. foreign policy.
“I absolutely stick to being an advocate for the humanitarian agenda,” Morris
says. “That’s who
we are, that’s my job. On occasion, government leaders
will try to put our work and my visit into a broader context, but I quickly try to bring them back by saying that the WFP is concerned about the most vulnerable, the most at-risk people in their country. I’m not competent to get into the other discussion, nor would I ever do so.” Morris also has to walk the fine line of being a loyal American and having his organization’s goals occasionally come into conflict with U.S. policies. For example, even though the U.S. is by far the largest donor to the World Food Program, some anti-hunger advocates criticize the U.S. for tying its food aid to American agri-business and U.S.-flag shipping vessels. Such “tied assistance” limits the flexibility of donation programs and blocks the opportunity to support struggling communities by buying food in developing countries. “We’re grateful for anything and everything anybody does to help us,” Morris says carefully, noting the U.S. generosity. But then he singles out countries like Sweden and the Netherlands for special praise, noting that they give their donations without strings attached. “Unrestricted multilateral support is the most valuable support we have,” Morris says. For many years, there has been plenty of food in the world to feed everyone. The challenge is to get the food to the rightplace atthe right time, Morris says. War, climate change and deficient agricultural infrastructure are all obstacles
to ending global hunger.
Another problem is that the public and their governments are easily dis-
tracted from the most pressing needs. Funds were plentiful for WFP programs in Iraq, Afghanistan and in response to last year’s deadly Indian Ocean tsunami, but donations lag for food programs in west Africa, for example, where drought and locusts have caused massive suffering and death. “Ninety percent of the children who die every day of hunger don’t die in high profile situations,” Morris says. “They are more likely to be in Niger or Mali or Malawi. Our job is to help people understand about the crises that exist in places that don’t make the front page every day.” Morris insists all these challenges are surmountable, and well worth the expense of just $35 a year to feed a schoolchild in Africa. “If you feed that little girl in Malawi and you make it possible for her to go to school for five years, everything about her life changes,” he says. “She’ll have children when she is 20, not when she’s 12. She’ll have two or three children, not 10. She is 50 percent less likelyto be HIV-positive, 50 percent less likely to have a low birthweight baby. “People need to do more. People are doing a lot; governments are doing a lot. But if everybody would do a little more, we could solve this problem. Compared to what is being spent on all sorts of other things - some worthwhile things, some frivolous things - the world has the capacity to feed our children.” Donations to the World Food Program can be made online at www.wfp.org.
Morris to speak at IUPUI Nov. 17 James T. Morris, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program and a native of Indianapolis, will speak on "Hunger, Health and Children” on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 4:30 p.m. at IUPUI University Library Auditorium.
PAGF tt A4
CYAN MAGFNTA
Rl AFK