Update Against Hunger - November 1, 2006
Field Notes:
To Honor All 6,000 of Our Teammates
At our annual World Food Day Gala (described below), we will honor Ayaz Mohammed Amin, our National Staff Member of the Year. You may be familiar with the accomplishments of our other two honorees (Susan Sarandon and Daniel Py), but if you haven’t worked on our projects in Pakistan during the past year, you won’t know Ayaz. Nonetheless, his selfless and tireless commitment to our work in Pakistan is vital and inspiring.
More to the point, his work reflects the dedication of all 6,000 employees of Action Against Hunger around the world. By honoring him, we celebrate everyone who helps our 4 million beneficiaries achieve health and self-reliance each year. The accomplishments of all our colleagues deserve the highest possible praise and respect.
David Blanc
Program Director,
Action Against Hunger
New from US Headquarter:
Our Ever-Glittering Gala
On Wednesday, November 15, we’ll hold our Seventh Annual World Food Day Benefit Gala at Capitale, a chic restaurant and events venue in New York City. The recipient of this year’s humanitarian award is actress Susan Sarandon, whom we’re honoring for her work supporting humanitarian efforts—most notably in her role as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, her work with Heifer International, and her activism on behalf of those suffering from hunger and HIV/AIDS. Terry George, Academy Award Nominee, Producer, Director, and Screenwriter of Hotel Rwanda will present the award.
In addition, Action Against Hunger’s 2006 Corporate Honoree is Daniel Py, MD, ScD, Chairman, and CEO of Med-Instill Technologies, a leading provider of contamination-free, aseptic dispensers. Dr. Py, a researcher renowned in the field of ophthalmics, participated in the development of Ivermectin, a product widely used in the treatment of river blindness. Supermodel Christy Turlington will present the corporate award.
Equally important, we’ll honor our national staff member of the year, Ayaz Mohammed Amin, who is profiled below.
Our auctioneer, who’ll sell haute goodies and such “wishing well” items as farm tools, clean water systems, and medical equipment for our beneficiaries, will be Jamie Niven, a senior vice president at Sotheby’s.
Want to attend? Ticket prices start at $500 each—though few of these bargain-priced seats remain. In past years, our annual gala has raised more than $500,000 for our projects, and we expect no less this year. href="/events/gala/gala06.html" class="greenLinks">Click here to learn more.
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Celebrate the Autumn season with a colorful Fall wreath, an inspired medley of burnt orange, ochre and soft brown hues. Made with organic preserved salal leaves and accented with wheat and acorns for an extra touch of texture, this layered Fall wreath is simple yet elegant.
With each purchase at Organic Bouquet, a 10% donation will be made to Action Against Hunger.
News from the field:
Our Newest Project: Clean Water for the Congo
Recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first democratic elections in more than 40 years brought hopeful visions of stability to a country ravaged by more than a decade of warfare between rebels and government forces. With peace a possibility, last July we launched our Campaign to End Starvation in the Congo. Within the next two weeks, a significant installment of that Campaign will begin.
In Equateur province, we’ll launch a large-scale water-and-sanitation project that will reach an estimated 25,000 beneficiaries. In an area that warfare turned from agriculturally rich and self-sustaining to unproductive and impoverished, we plan first to attack the polluted water and careless hygiene that has spread disease rampantly among the Congolese. Our goal is to install or refurbish 55 sources of clean water, to build latrines in 40 villages, and to build latrines, water caches, and bathing facilities in 15 schools. We also plan to educate villagers about safe hygiene and to organize local committees that will oversee maintenance of clean water distribution after we move on.
This project embodies many of our tried-and-true methods for improving water purity in contaminated settings. If peace can be sustained, we expect to achieve all our goals within eight months.
Person Profile:
Profile—Ayaz Mohammed Amin
Our National Staff Member of the Year for 2006 is Ayaz Mohammed Amin. He was born in Nigeria but raised in Peshawar, Pakistan. He studied computer science in college, worked briefly for an NGO in Pakistan, then earned his Masters, also in computer science. Ayaz was seeking employment in October 2005 when the 7.6-scale earthquake struck, and he offered his services to us. We employed him first as a translator and monitor, then as Supervisor in the town of Battagram, later as a food security supervisor, and recently we asked him to make a rapid assessment in a remote area of the Himalayas north of the quake’s epicenter.
Pakistan’s earthquake was a disaster of monumental proportions that victimized twice as many people as the previous year’s tsunami. The trembler called for an unprecedented response, in a mountain area that posed immense logistical challenges to the delivery of aid. We were among the first humanitarian organizations to respond, focusing on immediate assistance to two of the four hardest hit valleys, where our work continues to this day.
Ayaz was one of the few Action Against Hunger team members who stayed in the mountains throughout the winter, living and working in a tent while the area was covered by snow. Ayaz’s patience and organization kept our distributions relaxed and peaceful. His efforts explain why ACF is one of the most trusted partners among donors, UN agencies, and NGOs alike. We deliver, even in the direst situations, and employees such as Ayaz are the single most important reason. During one the worst natural disasters of the past 25 years, his work, commitment, and values have made a significant difference for thousands of people.
