Cesária Évora UN named ambassador to fight hunger
The internationally known singer Cesária Évora
from Africa has been appointed Food Ambassador for the United Nations.
She will represent the World Food Programme (WFP), an organisation
that fights hunger in the world. Évora will focus specifically
on food programs for school children in African countries.
Almost 24,000 people die every day due to a lack of food. In Africa
alone 40 million people suffer from hunger due to the effects of
armed conflicts, natural disasters and extreme poverty. As the
largest humanitarian organisation in the world the WFP provided
food to 72 million people - most of them women and children - in
82 countries in 2002. Through the WFP’s Global School Feeding
Campaign 15.6 million children in 62 countries received a hot,
nutritional meal at school every school day.
Cesária Évora (1941) comes from Cape Verde, a group
of islands approximately 500 kilometres west of Gambia and Senegal.
In 1988 she had the opportunity to record an album in Paris, after
which she gained attention from all sides to become one of the
biggest singing sensations in the world.
Even though Évora has been giving benefit concerts since
the beginning of her career to help women and children with few
opportunities in her country, she refused to align herself with
any humanitarian organisation. Thanks to the good results of the
Global School Feeding Campaign on Cape Verde the WFP was able to
convince her to accept the role of UN ambassador to fight hunger.
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