Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey, Director, Church and Society of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria and Executive Secretary/CEO, of Caritas, Nigeria/JDPC
From: Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
The Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CCFN) will today launch its Anti-Hunger and Poverty Campaign as part of efforts in support of the global fight to end poverty and hunger in the world by 2025.
A statement signed by the Executive Director of Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria/Justice Development Peace Committee (JDPC),CCFN Rev. Father Evaristus Bassey said the campaign tagged “One Human Family without Hunger and without Poverty”, was part of the global efforts of Caritas Internationalis; a confederation of all National Caritas providing humanitarian and development interventions around the world through charity as the goal of the campaign is to uphold human dignity by ending hunger by 2025 on all continents.
He said “the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that nearly 870 million people out of the 7.1 billion in the world, suffer from chronic hunger and undernourishment.
“Almost all of these hungry people live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of these countries.Caritas Internationalis and its member countries are committed to changing this situation by working towards ensuring that everyone has access to adequate and nutritious food”.
He noted that “whilst working in many rural areas of Nigeria, the Justice Development Peace Committee (JDPC) and CCFN have discovered that the areas worst hit by poverty and hunger, are in Northern Nigeria. This is due to a combination of factors which include the climatic conditions of the region and the recent security challenges.
“In 2012, CCFN supported 4,452 vulnerable households in the Sahel region of the Northern Nigeria by providing them the means to fight hunger and poverty. CCFN also supported 2,500 households in the Niger Delta who lost their livelihoods to the 2012 flooding, through the Integrated Emergency Recovery program which ended in October, 2013.
“In all these places, CCFN provided unconditional cash transfers and agricultural inputs to boost food production andsupport other means of livelihood. CCFN is also a partner on the five-year Support to Vulnerable Households project which will help 42,000 very poor households in Sokoto State and the FCT grow their agricultural production and incomes and improve the nutrition of their women and children”.
To mark the “One Human Family without Hunger and Poverty” campaign, Rev. BAssey said “CCFN will be collaborating with the Justice, Development and Peace/Caritas Commission of the Catholic Dioceses of Lafia to distribute food items to some internally displaced persons who lost their homes and livelihoods in recent communal clashes in Nasarawa State”.
“In the course of 2014, which has also been declared the International Year of Family Farming, CCFN and JDPC will disseminate campaign messages to create awareness about the hunger (and poverty) situation in Nigeria, and will build partnerships with the Ministry of Agriculture and other poverty reduction agencies of government and civil society to advocate for policies to improve food security and reduce hunger. Through the Church network, CCFN will work with local parishes to encourage families and communities to grow their own food”.
Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria was established in September 2010 as an agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria to coordinate humanitarian and development interventions for the Catholic Church in Nigeria.
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