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17th October 2001
Messages of Support, Official Appeals and Statements
[messages in french] [messages in spanish]
Official Appeals and Statements
On the 17th of October 2000, the members of ATD Fourth World in Louvière (Belgium) went into local schools to discuss with the children how to create peace in the classroom and how to ensure no child felt excluded. Three hundred took part and a video was shown. The children were asked to react to it and comment on any exclusion they knew of around them. To finish, some children explained what they were prepared to do to improve relationships and the atmosphere in class; and how they would put an end to any exclusion of other children around them.
Here are some of the actions they were prepared to take and for which they demanded support:
ALTO LIMA – LA PAZ
Fourth World families from Bolivia gathered on the 25th, 26th and 27th of July 2001 to prepare for the 17th of October 2001.
"On the 17th, I hope that parents will teach their children to share. We must not feel humiliated, we are people like anyone else."
"Today we are united but their are many families who could not be present. On the 17th of October we will speak up for these families."
"I am here. I am part of society. I am from the Fourth World. We need to be respected, to be recognised for who we are and all that we are as a people, so that our dignity is respected."
Messages written by children from Cusco :
"Dear Tapori friends in New York and Washington, we live in El Bosque, Cusco, Peru. We saw what happened in your country on September the 11th, how so many people were killed. War is the worst thing that exists. We will always be with you, especially in difficult times. With Tapori, we have learned to be confidant and to support one another. In Peru we have suffered many years of violence, we want there to be peace in the world"
"To Tapori friends in the United States, we send this message from Villa El Sol, in Cusco, Peru.
We are very sad about what happened in your country. We saw the two aeroplanes crash into the twin towers. We don't want you to suffer any more. We want to stop war because it brings nothing but death and suffering. We want there to be peace between all countries. All of us have to unite to stop a third world war, so that no more children, teenagers, or adults die or houses are destroyed. If we suceed in having no more wars, we will live happily with our families. Best wishes."
17th of October 2001 – La Louvière (Belgium) - Parents speak
Hello everyone,
We speak in the name of parents living in poverty.
What do we know about living in poverty?
Living in poverty is not having the basic essentials for survival, to be looked down upon and not accepted by others who think they are better than us.
Poverty often leads to disaster.
What do parents living in poverty have to say?
Very often they seal themselves off because they live in fear or because they don't feel they have the ability to express themselves. They try to hide the terrible truth of their poverty to protect their children.
When things go wrong, the services swarm around us like a wasps' nest. We feel crushed by their constant questioning and advice.
Sometimes they take decisions for us that we don't understand; for example, when they put our children in care because they say they are not clean enough, or when our very young children are sent to classes for people with learning difficulties.
We are the parents, we are responsable for our children.
What do we do to fight poverty?
Firstly, you have to take hold of your courage in both hands. If we parents don't do things for our children, no-one will.
When our children are put into care, we visit them as often as we can.
To get our children to school everyday is a big effort, especially when we have nothing to put in their school bags and we fear being reprimanded by the school.
Many parents living in poverty also live in fear of the social workers, the police, the schools, even the doctors.
How can we improve the situation between parents and professionnels, especially with the schools?
It starts with respect, respect between each other. For us, you can see if someone respects you, by looking in the person's face. When a professionnel smiles at you, it is easier to speak with them.
Before telling us what is wrong with our children, they should listen to us and answer our questions. Often, the professionnels talk all the time and we never get a word in edgeways.
All children have equal rights. Even if the child is a difficult one, they should not be put to one side.
We demand that the professionnels respect our children, love them like any other child. If they miss some schooling, we ask you to do everything in your power to help them and take time to speak with the parents.
If we parents and the professionnels work hand in hand, the children will feel better.
They will be much happier to go to school and they will achieve better results.
Thank you for listening and especially for trying to understand us.
Testimony
From an island in the Indian Ocean, a group of children from the Tapori Movement wrote to us:
"Living in misery is not just about being poor. It's also when people look at us and don't smile.
"We children think that the most true face is the face of a grown-up who is smiling, especially if the grown-up is not from your neighborhood."
This happens with adults too. There are times when strangers look at you in a certain way. Some neighborhoods have bad reputations and other people don't see the things there that are good. Sometimes even people who live near you won't answer when you say good morning or show any sign of respect.
Or, for example, in a court of law, too often the lawyers and judges may be looking at people who come there in terms of their poverty and their problems. They don't see the whole picture. They don't have the chance to look for the positive things people do, the things that can be built on for a better future.
One mother said, "In school, my daughter was also getting bothered by a 6-year-old boy. He would poke her with a pencil and call her names. I met with the teacher and when she talked to him, he finally told her that his parents were not able to take care of him and that he and his sister were living in an abandoned building." This boy had been so mean and that made others angry, but it was also important to learn how he was living and to have the teacher look for help for him.
It can be hard to stop criticizing and to see past bad things. The good things show when people learn to come together as one and to be friends. It seems like since the World Trade Center bombing people in New York have come together, people who don't even know each other are talking together on trains. It shouldn't have to come to this to bring people together.
My children and I went to the vigil at Union Square Park on 14th Street and everybody, white, black, Asian, and people from many countries, got together and shared their feelings and sang songs--it was like we were all family members that night.
Human misery is overwhelming. We know that there are children and families suffering from hunger, living in cemeteries, working in garbage dumps. No one respects their human rights. It keeps us awake at night, crying and wanting to be able to do something. We thought of this after September 11th. So many people have wanted to help. Many were able to volunteer or to give blood or to donate money.
But so many people wanted to help that many were turned away from donating blood or from volunteering. It was frustrating. Maybe today, during this International Year of Volunteers, this can remind all of us how important it is to make it possible for everyone to be able to volunteer, and to contribute. Even the poorest person on the face of the earth doesn't want to spend life asking others for help or sending her own children out to beg. That person wants to be able to share with others, to teach other people from her experience and wisdom. Everybody has a different experience and we all have things to learn from each other.
I think that poverty should be ended. The United Nations is an important place for people and governments to continue trying to end poverty together, because no one country has all the answers. Poverty has been going on so long that people should not have to suffer any more.
Testimonies about volunteers from people living in Philipinas
"Volunteerism for me is an offering of oneself, first and foremost. It is imbedded in our culture. Like what we call the ‘bayanihan’. (Still exists in the provinces where the men in the entire village come together to lift a nipa house to another place. The women of the village prepare food for them. When the house is transferred, the people of the village dance and sing to signal a successful day that they were able to help their neighbour in need.) When our neighbour is dire need, and has almost nothing, we give food to one another. Sometimes it is done in a very discrete way. Whenever we do things at home, it’s automatic that we help each other. This is volunteerism by itself. If we would try to broaden volunteerism, it could go beyond these examples and we could say that we volunteer to fight for our rights for land, against demolitions, in defence of Human Rights and even for the environment." (a man)
"Volunteerism is important for the young people. This
serves as an avenue for them to develop their selves as people.
With volunteerism, young people are encouraged to relate and to
communicate with other people and eventually discover his
weakness and strengths. This is very important for us because
through this we will be able to offer something to humanity which
could be the start of a social change." (An other young
people).
Also see french one
Darkness
by Iasia Williams
We all live in a world of darkness.
I am just sick of what is going on in this world.
People are dying as I am writing.
Can someone please tell me what is going on in this world?
Why is there so much hate in this world?Every day is a battle for me.
One day I wish to God that we will be free
from the darkness inside of all of us.
We need to stop the things we are all doing.All we do is hate.
We just want to see the light.
Is that so wrong?Let's just get together and unite as one not as two.
How can you judge me when you don't even know me?
How can you look at me like I am different
when you are different yourself?Some people say that we should unite as one
but how can we unite as one
when we can't even stay in the room together for five minutes?Now tell me
is the battle really over?
Peace
by Tina Lindsey
Peace feels like something big
And good some children don't have.
Peace - I wish we have
More peace in the world.
What October 17 means to me...
By Tina Lindsey and Camilla RobersonIt means to me
that we're trying to stop hunger,
and violence,
and ignorance.And, I hope we do that.
It means to me
freedom from fear,
Giving voice to the children and the people,
Appreciating diversity,
and, recognizing the struggle for respect and life.
What October 17th Means to Me
by Zena Grimes
On October 17th,
I get a chance to meet new people.
I get a chance to hear
about people's thoughts,
about people in other countries,
what they are going through in their country,
how they are living there.
I wish that I could help them
to make a change in their country.
We all can have a better world.
We all can live together with
freedom
and unity
and justice
and peace.
We all as people should love and respect one another
and not discriminate against one another.
That's what we need in the world today,
to make the world a better place.
Contribution from young people of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for 17 October 2001.
This fight against poverty is an everyday struggle for us.
For if it true that we are together in the fight against poverty then we are supposed to fight it without jealousies, without misunderstandings, without isolation.
And we would like to tell you the truth of this. It is because we are alone that we are without help and so helping one another is very important to us. We try to offer help or support to one another when one is in trouble or one is ill.
But we also hope that there will come a day when our leaders will help. You have to make a plan so that you can help us to help ourselves, so that you can help us to employ ourselves.
We all dream of becoming fishermen, clothes sellers, mechanics, cooks and welders. We dream of work that will take us away from this difficult life.
We dream of having the knowledge and the skills that will allow us to do such work because once we have this knowledge and these skills they will not be lost. We will remain technicians.
Such work would change our lives and because work is work, and because a trade is a trade, we will find a way to fight against poverty.
And we hope that one day our dreams will come true in this world.
New Orleans - extracts of a testimony
"I was ordained as a missionary in the Baptist church, so people call me missionary. (…) I was born and raised in Mobile Alabama, I lived in a part of town called "down in the bay". I’m now a resident of New Orleans where I have been living since 1950. I’ve lived here in the Irish channel.
I was vice president of the homeless union here in New Orleans. I discovered the union when a gentleman came to get me to go to one of the meetings. I met a woman pastor who was running a shelter for the homeless men right on the eleven hundred block of annunication street. She had about a hundred men living in the shelter and I began to stop by and spend time with them, sitting with them at night, seeing that they had beds to sleep in, food to eat, going out try to get clothes for them to go out to find work. I had a real burden to help these people that had a need. The place some of them were living in didn’t have any water, light, or gas. It was very cold in there. So I went on TV and we started publicizing our needs. I thought then about the people I knew that was eating out of garbage cans and I said, "Maybe if I start working with these people we’ll see the day when nobody will be eaten out of a garbage. I went down and joined the union!
I have had to find a home for myself, my daughter and my two grand-children. So I can speak about being homeless. (…)
I’m a poor person myself. I’m writing about all the struggles I’ve been through my whole life. I had to moved out of a house that was condemned. It was my home for over thirty years. I raised my children there. As years passed by, I watched it run down and fall apart. The present landlords don’t do anything to fix the houses up at all. My friends were coming over to fix things for me. They were never paid for their services. (…) A poor person just doesn’t have that much money at one time. I feel like this: If you can’t give someone a descent place to live then I don’t think that you deserve the right to live in a dream house, and surely not a mansion. I’m saying this: If I ask you for a slice of bread and you give me stone, then you are not sharing your bread with your sisters and brothers at all. (…)
On the side of the poor and those who share. The way I was raised was to share and share alike. See? Because people have helped me. If you make one step, you can make two. after my house had been condemned, My old home, I raised all my children in it. There was many days I didn’t eat because first I had to feed my children. But I never let them run barefooted and they never was without clothes. We all went to church too. (…)
I worked with welfare rights organization. When people got cut off welfare for three months, I was out there trying to see that babies were getting milk, people had shoes and clothes, and a place out of that hot summer sun. Then I started working with the shelters, helping people to move out, move a step higher, get back united with their families. Right now I’m working at a soup kitchens. We feed two or three hundred homeless people every week. I also teach Sunday School.
I’m doing the best I can. I tell the Lord, "I’ll always do my best," you know? Plus, it keeps me going. I meet people that inspire me. (…)
If you want respect
you should give respect to one another.
You should respect adults, too. I think we should
care for everyone, not only sick people, but for adults and
for yourself, too. One time when I was at a big Tapori meeting
with other kids from other countries, there were some
there who couldn’t read. We helped them
try to read. Kids need to go to school
and not have to pay for it.
--Raneisha W.
I know a girl
Who was getting teased by another
Girl who said she couldn’t read and that
her hair was always messed up and that her mother was bad.
The girl told me, "My mother does her best for me. I would love to know how to read, but people always make fun of me. I just want people to love me for me and not what I look like."
I bear witness to you Rose!
I remember that day, 5 years ago, when I met you for the first
time.
Your little girl, Mary, had been placed with a foster family,
And you were missing her so much!
You were expecting an
answer from the Social Services…
And you were sure she would be home before Christmas…
I remember your smile that first day.
It was a smile of hope,
The smile of a mother counting down the days…
But Mary didn’t come back,
And once again the world crumbled around you…
Why didn’t she come
back? You do not know.
How could a mother know?
I bear witness to you Rose!
Your sister is a lawyer
but like so many of us,
You know what it means to live on benefits,
You know what it means to be seen as an unfit parent,
Above all, you know what it means to have children taken away
from you.
Due to your mental health
condition, your life became a long struggle.
You joined the world of the poor and those born into poverty
recognised you as one of them.
For the past 2 years, you have been locked up in a psychiatric
unit.
Last time I saw you, you were still fighting for your dignity and
for your rights,
You were still fighting to be recognised as a mother!
I bear witness to you, Rose!
Françoise, London, 17th Oct 2001
*******
My name is Gerald. I am a father and grandfather. I live in London and for the past seven months I have cleaned the stairways in a housing estate close to my home. I enjoy my job and take pride in it. I do hope I can keep that job.
Often people get the sack and they don’t even know why. It happened to me. Each time I looked for another job, I walked around, and I asked people if they knew of anything…
I can’t stay indoors and I don’t know what it is to be on the dole.
I still have 2 children at home. They are 12 and 15 years old. I love them and I want them to get an education. As a child, I didn’t get the chance to learn how to read and write properly. I don’t want their lives to be just like mine.
Gerald, London, 17th Oct 2001
*******
My name is Malcolm.
Many times over the years, I’ve been with ATD Fourth World, the doors have been slammed in our faces. Because of the anger inside of me I want to shout and break these doors down, but getting angry doesn’t work, you have to bide your time, and just wait until these doors open, and eventually people will get round and listen to us. We need a world that will listen.
I’m no superhero, I’m not going to save the world, I’m just one person who longs to be heard. We have voices but we seem not to be heard. I have wishes and dreams but nothing comes true for me so I don’t ask.
Everybody remembers Christmas but nobody remembers October 17th.
It’s a day that should be remembered for all people in the world, through the hard times and the suffering, for all people suffering at the moment.
Everybody remembers Christmas but not the 17th October. Why does it have to be only people living in poverty that remember the 17th October? We need to get the message across to other people, it’s a time to start moving, to get in touch with Governments and the UN and the European Parliament. It’s a day to remember something, and we must remember for those who have suffered and died in the past. We need people on our side to fight for people in poverty, for the people of Europe and all the world.
Malcolm, London, 17th Oct 2001
******
The 17th October is about seeing what is outside of your own world. It about listening to people, not telling them what they should do and what’s best for them.
Parents want nothing but the best for their children and the same goes the other way round. Parents need to be with their children, not separated from them.
If you are forced to live with so little money its so difficult sometimes to provide the basics. Not having enough money is very worrying – we can see it in the faces of the parents on the high street who look like they are struggling. People turn a blind eye to families and others in difficulty. But that person might be crying out for help. Often people don’t get the help they need. It should be our job to try to help them.
Poverty prevents people having their rights. It stops you from having a normal life.
People find it very hard to cope on benefits. Unemployed men feel very bad because they are unable to provide. The whole family suffers and men start to blame themselves. People shouldn’t be blamed for living in poverty. They should live the way they want to live, not how they are forced to live.
Patricia, London, 17th Oct 2001
DUBLIN (Irlande) :
Testimony given by the delegates from Brussels
Michel : We are here to represent the ATD Fourth World Central Station Group, a group of homeless people living in the Central Station of Brussels. Last June, we had the chance to welcome a group representing travellers from Klonakilty in Ireland.
We meet every 2 weeks in the hall of the central station to share what we live and to support each other. Yesterday, one of us said : " When you are alone, what counts most of all is to be in contact with others. Loneliness kills you. When we are begging, our greatest joy is not to receive a coin of money, but when someone looks you into the eyes and smiles at you. Because we also have our self-respect and our dignity."
Thanks to our group, there is now a team of lawyers coming regularly to the station to help homeless people to defend their fundamental rights.
Marguerite : Yesterday-noon, before leaving for Dublin, we went for the first time to the grave of Robert Debock, a friend of ours who died a few months ago. It was very hard to be there. There was nothing to mark his grave : no name, not even a simple cross. We said to each other that too many people still count for nothing in this world. We also said that the most important thing we can do is not to forget friends who died and to continue to fight 200% to prevent families and children having to live in poverty. We dug in the earth and planted flowers on Roberts grave.
This is one of the many ways people prepared for October 17th in Belgium. There are more than 15 gatherings in different towns in Belgium these days; one meeting is happening right now in the Belgian parliament where people living in poverty, and the organisations they belong to, are in discussion with more than 60 members of parliament.
Coming here, we discovered that people, as we did for Robert, placed flowers at this Famine Memorial. We know Ireland has a lot of places where people and groups who have known poverty and famine can be remembered. We don’t have much of these places in Belgium or elsewhere in Europe. Yet they are an honour, a chance and a sign of hope for us all, since they want, just like 17th October commemorations, that the courage of the poorest isn’t thrown away.
Testimony from Theresa (Dublin)
My name is Teresa. I want to speak to you on behalf of the homeless in Dublin.
I grew up in institutions. I have been on the streets half of
my life and before me, my father and mother were homeless too. I
have a place now but I still care for the young homeless because
I have been there myself.
No one wants to know you when you are homeless and on drugs. You
are not a human being, you are not even a number, you are classed
as nothing.
When you are on the streets, you have to be brave to just keep
going. If you get a place for the night, you find yourself in a
room with 8 people. You have to get out in the morning at 9.30,
back onto the street, in the cold and rain, getting bored,
dossing out in the streets.
To go to a cafe and be thrown out because they don’t want to
know you. The homeless are very brave, the way they keep going,
from day to day.
People don’t see it that way.
If you are a homeless family you have to have lots of strength
to look after your kids when you are in Bed-and-Breakfast and you
have to walk the streets until night-time and keep your kids
clean and nice.
When you see people on the streets, you’d think they were
single but many of them have families, they had their children
taken into care. They are families that are being swept under the
carpet.
These people loved their kids, even if they couldn’t look after them. Like this couple I know.
He is in a hostel here, she in a hostel there, and they have a little boy in care, but she’s giving up figting for him. Some parents had it much harder than others, they have been pushed from pillar to post, they should get more support. So many who are homeless today have been in care.
Homeless young people need someone to listen to them and do
something for them.
I am trying to help them young people.
I can’t promise them anything, but I try and get them sorted
out.
I’d love to be someone important, to help them better, but I
am not. I am just doing what I can. I try and give them a little
bit of comfort, a little bit of hope.
I tell them : "You have your life in front of you, no one can do it for you, but I know you are going to make it one of them days."
They know you’ve been though it and that you understand
them.
The people on the streets are great people.
They have real warm hearts.
They give me so much, they keep me going.
When I am with them, I am not thinking of my life.
It keeps my head off me problems.
On the streets you know one another and you try and support
one another the way you can.
We don’t have to talk to understand each other.
We know what it is like.
I have known lots of people, many young ones, who have died on
the streets. I don’t forget them.
Today I remember Cristina who died in St James hospital. She
used to be a strong girl, she got so thin because of the drugs. I
remember Tiny.
I want to remember Dolly, Winnie, Pauline too,
who died in Bemburb Street. We skippered out together in the cold,
the wet, the snow. She was a genuine person.
I remember Michelle, she was only a kid herself and had 4
children taken into care. And I remember Michael Power who died 2
weeks ago. He took his life. He had great gifts in him.
All that suffering is hidden, as if it never happened. It
needs to be said. I don’t think they should be forgotten,
they were good people.
It has to change. The homeless people should be treated with more
respect. More should be done for the young people. Young women
badly need to have a place open for them.
They should all be given a real chance in life.
Saying "No" to the injustice of poverty
We are all here today for the same reason. We are here to support one another in saying "no" to the injustice of poverty. All of us come from different ethnic backgrounds. If you take a look at the person standing there beside you, they are probably very different from you. Maybe they are thin, obese, black or white. Some of us may come from luxurious homes, with many jewels and charms on our shoulders, while others may have only a small amount of clothing on their backs. Some individuals have been through poverty and come from homeless shelters. I believe, though, that everyone realizes that above all the differences, we are all still human beings that deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
I, myself, am a single Hispanic mother residing in a shelter. I have also experienced poverty. When you hear the word poverty, though, what comes into your mind? Maybe just being hungry. To me, poverty means a lot of different things. It means being hungry, not having a roof over our heads, struggling in this world to get some clothes or even, say, some rags on our backs. I think that poverty is also an experience that gives many of us a chance to get on our feet to do the right things in life. There are many people that think of a homeless person as different. It shouldn’t be like that, though. Maybe some of us didn’t get the same chance that others did as a child. Is that to blame? No it is not. Because of that reason, should anyone have his or her rights violated? No, they shouldn’t. I am sure that all of us who have at one point been there, in the world of poverty are very thankful and appreciative to the help that we have received from the government. There is plenty of help out there for anyone that is in need of a roof over his or her head, food, or that just needs financial support. But that’s not what it is all about. There is so much more that we look for from those that are willing to stretch out a hand to us. We shouldn’t be inferior to anyone, because of the way that we live or because of the individual that we are. Our emotions are supposed to count too. What about the equality and sincere respect that each one of us deserves? In my belief, everyone is very special in his or her own ways. Whether they are hungry today and full tomorrow. Or whether they are homeless tonight and under a safe roof in the future. I also believe that the many people that live in the world of poverty, are not just looking for an easy way out. Those people don’t just cry out for financial support. We are individuals that want to feel we belong in this nation too. So don’t just help us out of pity, or because of your employment duties. Open up your heart and help us with your soul as well. Don’t just watch us struggle each day of our lives. Don’t just sit back and watch us drown ourselves in our own tears. Don’t just stand there and say that you understand, when you really don’t. Get up and try to feel us for once. Try to let the love of your heart come out and make a small difference in our lives.
Let us all be treated with dignity and respect.
Let us be able to teach our children of poverty that we are all one people.
Let us be able to teach our children that we belong.
Let us teach our children that we must not be blind to the love and equality that will be granted to us.
Let us teach our children that one day we will no longer sing that same painful song.
Some testimonies from Swansea (Wales)
A Day Of Thought
The anti poverty team invited council staff and members of the
anti poverty network to join the rest of the world on the UN
eradication of poverty day. To show their support we asked them
to email us their stories, opinions, thoughts or feelings on
poverty and social exclusion in Swansea.
[extracts]
"I suppose I would say it is the sight of a row of houses
which are all boarded up except for one where there are curtains
- you know that those people don't want to live there but perhaps
they have no choice"
"That nobody feels stuck in their life with no one caring.
That problems with money , health or security will not always
dominate the day to day and you are free to plan and dream."
"Unfortunately our society is not very inclusive - the old
often feel excluded as do the young and middle aged - the worst
thing is I don't know what to do about it."
"My thoughts on eradication of poverty concern the
eradication of the causes of social poverty."
"Poverty for me is trying to fit into a world where u are
judged by your lack of economic power when you are desperately
trying to be judged by other factors. It is trying to get a
better job when you can't afford a new suit. It is trying to
juggle your finances to afford the playstation 2 so your kids
aren't different to their friends. It is trying to afford the
things other people feel you do deserve as a single mum - nights
out and cigarettes."
"Poverty is the lack of an essential need, Social
deprivation is the lack of a voice and/or someone to listen."
...
We would like to thank everybody who took the time to think about what poverty meant for them and sent us their thoughts. It is clear from these replies that poverty means different things to different people. Poverty of chance, income, lifestyle, housing, leisure, inclusion, transport, choice and all these things contribute to building up a picture of how the most disadvantaged in our communities live and are perceived.
It is clear that many people care about poverty not only in Swansea, but in the UK, Europe and across the world, and that many want to contribute to eradicating it. The City and County of Swansea Council is committed to doing what it can to tackle these problems locally and to share the people of Swansea's understanding of poverty with the organisations that can make difference on the world stage.
Please Note Individual comments do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council, any individual Councillors or Council employees.
Official Appeals and Statements
Message from A.A. de Vos van Steenwijk, International Movement ATD Fourth World President (french, italian)
UN General Secretaris, M. Kofi Annan (french, english, italian)
Message from M. Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP Administrator (english, spanish)
FAO Director-General’s Message on the occasion of World Food Day and TeleFood 2001 : "Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty" (french, spanish, italian)
M. Boutros Boutros-Ghali in french