Since its launch in 1997, FAO's TeleFood campaign has harnessed the power of the mass media and entertainment industry to raise funds to eradicate hunger by helping the hungry help themselves. International celebrities - film, music and sports stars - have taken part in TeleFood broadcasts, concerts and sports events in more than 60 countries, reaching global audiences of over 500 million people and mobilizing donations of more than US$6 million.
Every dollar donated to TeleFood goes directly to grassroots projects that enable hungry people to feed their families. The money is used only to pay for seeds, agricultural tools and other materials with none going toward administrative costs.
TeleFood is funding more than 150 micro-input schemes worth more than US$1 million in 26 countries in Asia and the Pacific.
During 2001 the FAO regional office in Bangkok produced three video documentaries on the successful outcome of TeleFood projects in selected Asia-Pacific countries.
|
China Training in improved water melon cultivation practices, 480 kg of high quality water melon seed and 80 000 kg of special fertiliser, all arranged by TeleFood funds, have dramatically changed the lives of 456 households in Langouyan village in Pengxi county of China's western Sichuan province. Langouyan stands out as an island of affluence in the Pengxi countryside where declining farm incomes and growing pressure on farmland have led to large-scale out-migration from most villages to the big cities. Starting in 1998, the TeleFood project has enabled Langouyan farmers to improve the size and quality of their watermelons, which are now in great demand in far away markets. More than 1 000 farmers have been trained and the average yield has gone up from 1 900 kg per mu before 1998 to 2 450 kg per mu in 2001. The average family income has shot up to 1 685 yuan from 1 086 yuan during this period. The project has helped check out-migration of village youth, made women earn as much as men and increased the social standing of village women. Many families now have colour TV sets, telephones and motorcycles. The village now has paved roads, new houses and a primary school is being built. The success of Langouyan has inspired similar TeleFood projects in Anhui, Jiangxi and Chongqing provinces or cities. Government leaders in Sichuan are impressed by the TeleFood project, which they see as a model rural development scheme. |
|
Thailand TeleFood assistance worth US$2 500 in the form of vegetable seeds and fertilisers, has brought prosperity to the residents of Phonbang village in Thailand's northeastern Yasothorn province, some 500 km northeast of Bangkok. The northeast is the country's poorest region where average earnings are less than half the average national income. Low yields on their tiny, rainfed farm lots, forces more and more households to sell off their lands and send able-bodied members to work in the big cities. This has shattered family and social life with women and children affected the most. TeleFood has cashed in on the entrepreneurial drive of the women farmers of Phonbang who grow vegetables in home and community gardens to feed a food processing factory they run as a cooperative enterprise. The cooperative factory supplies to popular supermarkets in northeastern provinces. Incomes range from B 100 to B 200 a day - more than enough for basic household needs. More importantly, the women are happy because they no longer have to leave their village to seek a livelihood in big cities like Bangkok. The women were also helped to start duck, fish and frog breeding. In late 2000, TeleFood introduced new vegetables like Chinese broccoli to Phonbang. Grown without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the vegetables are certified toxic-free by Thailand's Food and Drug Administration. Officials in the government's provincial cooperative promotion department say that marketing surveys have found high demand for the produce of the Phonbang food factory. |
|
Tonga One of the 172 coral and volcanic islands that make up the Kingdom of Tonga, about 2 000 km northeast of New Zealand, Ha'afeva has no electricity, no cars, no tourists and a single village telephone. Besides handwoven goods, the sea catch is the main source of food and income for Ha'afeva's about 500 people. However, the annual household income of about US$500 is not reliable. Things are changing ever since TeleFood shipped about US$5 000 worth of fish processing and preservation equipment to the island in October 1999. This has enabled the locals to prepare a delicious new product - dried, salted fish that lasts longer and fetches a higher price. The ministry of fisheries provided training and marketing for the processed fish. More and more households are now turning from weaving to fish processing as their main source of income. |
