25 years german world hunger aid - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1987 - 80 Pfennig

On December 14, 1987, Welthungerhilfe celebrates its 25th anniversary. It has grown into one of the largest independent non-denominational development cooperation organizations in these three development decades. The story of Welthungerhilfe began with a global campaign against hunger, to which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called in 1961. The aim of the FAO was to create national committees working for food security and agricultural promotion in the Third World. In the Federal Republic, which had its first Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation with Walter Scheel this year, the FAO initiative met with interest. Federal President Heinrich Lübke agreed to take over the patronage of the German National Committee. Then as now, this committee includes representatives of all important social groups of the Federal Republic: the parliamentary groups of the German Bundestag, the churches and the social partners, agricultural and cooperative associations as well as representatives from research and science. The patronage is still borne today by the respective Federal President. The financial beginning was difficult, and in the early years, the staff were only volunteers available. But in 1967 the committee changed its name to "Welthungerhilfe", and in October the "Welthungerhilfe Week" was held for the first time, with a donation of 250,000 DM. In 1968, the nutritionist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Nutritional Physiology, Professor Heinrich Kraut, the chair. He appointed a committee of experts whose task it is to decide on the distribution of donations. He was followed by Dr. Hans-Joachim von Merkatz, dr. Claus W. Broicher and dr. Helga Henselder-Barzel, today's CEO. The first development projects were supported by the German Agro Action in 1968 in India, West Africa and Peru. The amount of donations and the number of projects increased from year to year. In 1971, the million mark was exceeded, and already in 1975, around DM 10 million could be used for development projects. In 1986, the donations amounted to 26.3 million DM. In the 25 years of its existence, the German Welthungerhilfe has used around half a billion marks for project work in the poorest countries in the world. For larger programs and disaster relief, it receives grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, the Federal Foreign Office, the European Community and other institutions. The project funding of the German Welthungerhilfe has never been based on ideology, development trends or even politics, but always pursued only one goal: Help for self-help for the poorest sections of the population. She has strengthened local initiatives from the very beginning and works almost exclusively with local organizations and self-help groups. This applies to all areas of cooperation: agriculture, water supply, crafts, education or the promotion of orphanages and schools. Again, this was a constant in 25 years: The projects are relatively small and manageable, as unbureaucratic as possible and tailored to the needs of those affected. Around 2,000 projects in 87 developing countries have already been completed or are still being implemented. The experience gained from this cooperation helps to inform the public about developments, successes but also problems of the countries. (Text: German Welthungerhilfe, Bonn)