Fighting Child Hunger in Bogota, Columbia
FIGHTING CHILD HUNGER IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- (House of Representatives - February 25, 2004)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, over the recess I traveled to Colombia for a third time as part of a fact-finding delegation sponsored by the Washington Office on Latin America.
The highlight of my trip was a visit to a school feeding program in a place called Ciudad Bolivar, which is a very poor area of Bogota. Mr. Speaker, this school feeding program is a partnership between USAID, the U.N. World Food Programme and the Bogota Department of Social Welfare.
Joining me at the school were USAID Mission Director Mike Deal; Mr. Peter Goossens, WFP Program Coordinator for Colombia; Maria Lucia Osorio, WFP staff person who works directly with the school; Andrew Krefft, the USAID senior program specialist on Colombia's internally displaced; and representatives from Bogota's Department of Social Welfare.
I want to express my personal appreciation for all their efforts in making school feeding programs in Colombia so successful.
Mr. Speaker, the school I visited is called Colegio Luis Carlos Galan. Approximately 1,200 children receive meals and food rations at Colegio Galan. Eighty percent of these children are from displaced families. The children receive a fortified breakfast mixture and mid-morning fortified snacks. The meals are prepared by community cooks in school kitchens, where mothers are educated in food preparation, nutrition, child care, and health care. The school meal is supplemented with rice, vegetables, beans, eggs, and juice, purchased and prepared by the children's families from family contributions of about 10 cents per day.
This one school feeding program costs only $2,000 for the entire 2004 school year. Think of it, Mr. Speaker, just $2,000 provides 1,200 impoverished children with nutritious meals and snacks for an entire school year. These are some of these children. It also strengthens families' commitments to their children's education, attracts and keeps these children in school, and demonstrates, as few other programs can, that the United States genuinely cares about the future of Colombia's children.
Mr. Speaker, 80 percent of displaced Colombians live in extreme poverty and have inadequate nutrition. Only 36 percent of displaced children will ever finish primary school, and a mere 8 percent will complete high school. Currently, USAID funds a 3-year $5.1 million program to alleviate hunger, improve the health and well-being of Colombia's displaced families, and increase school attendance through school feeding programs.
The USAID program, which began in September 2003, assists over 113,000 displaced schoolchildren in 414 schools in 12 Colombian departments. The program is implemented by WFP; and prior to this, the school feeding program was financed through USDA's McGovern-Dole International Food for Education pilot program. Mr. Speaker, regrettably, the Bush administration made Draconian cuts in this program that resulted in eliminating the Colombian funding. Fortunately for Colombia's children, USAID came to the rescue and picked up the costs, incorporating it into programs supporting Colombia's internally displaced.
At the school I visited, 80 percent of the children are from displaced families. They come from all over Colombia, ranging in age from 6 years to 16, and reflect Colombia's racial and ethnic diversity. One mother, displaced from Caqueta, told me that her family's life was filled with violence: "It is terrible to have to flee with nothing but the clothes on your back, running for hours and days, arriving at Bogota, not knowing anyone." She gave her sincerest thanks for the United States' support of the school.
A teacher stated, "Today, these children are fed, but tomorrow, who knows?" This teacher felt that many of these children were in school for the first time in their lives, learning things that will help them throughout their lives, like how to read and write.
Mr. Speaker, if you could only see these children. They are bright, they are beautiful, they are the future of Colombia; and I admire and honor the dedicated teachers and school administrators and parents and students at this school; and I respect the commitment of USAID and the World Food Program staff, who are giving these families hope for a better future.
Last Friday, the newly elected mayor of Bogota, Mr. Lucho Garzon, launched a new initiative called Bogota Without Hunger. Through this campaign, Ciudad Bolivar is one of six priority zones designated to receive additional resources for nutrition, education, health services, and housing.
I encourage my colleagues to visit U.S.-supported school feeding programs when they travel abroad. I most strongly urge the leadership of this Congress to significantly increase funding for both the USDA McGovern-Dole program and USAID food aid programs. No matter how tight current budget restrictions might be, these programs are truly among the very best investments we can make in the future stability of Colombia and the world.
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