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Africa? Guatemala To Host International Conference On Hunger This Weekend

Guatemala's First Secretary Of Food Security And Nutrition Andres Botran Hosts Policy And Government Experts From Across Central America

Famine victims like those in Africa account for only 10 percent of the world-wide hunger problem - the other 90 percent suffer from "chronic" hunger a devastating, cruel condition that affects millions of children throughout Central America.

This weekend, Guatemala's first Secretaría de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (Secretary of Food Security and Nutrition), José Andrés Botrán will host dozens of world leaders, NGO's and hunger experts in a groundbreaking conference in Guatemala City to combat this problem head on.

Nations of Latin America are coming together because the facts about chronic hunger are all too real in countries like Guatemala. For example:

- 49.3 percent of Guatemalan children are chronically malnourished.

- The impacts of hunger on a child's development are irreversible after the age of three.

- Due to being chronically malnourished and under-developed 43 percent of Guatemalan children repeat first grade and many don't come back to school once they fail.

- The Cycle of Hunger never gets broken and these children will never grow into the economic promise of CAFTA.

This Latin American Conference on Chronic Hunger in Guatemala City has been organized within the framework of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and is intently focused on finding solutions to the chronic nutritional problems plaguing the continent.

Representative attendees from the different countries will be asked to sign and commit to the terms of a declaration presented to them during this conference. This is a prelude to the unprecedented UN gathering next week in New York on the Millennium Development Goals.

To discuss these issues with José Andrés Botrán, contact David D'Onofrio.

     
   Senior Director
   I Imagine
   Leesburg,    VA,    20176
   USA
   703 669-8025 (phone)
   703-995-4893 (fax)
   dave@iImagineUSA.com
   www.iimagineUSA.com