Gates foundation to fund "Don't Feed the Children"
Posted by Matthew on Thursday June 17, 2004 @05:08PM
from the an-end-to-non-hunger dept.
Matthew writes: While it’s common knowledge that children in first-world nations are increasingly obese, the effects of overeating on third-world children are not as widely known but just as disastrous. Over-eating is now common in South-East Asia, and Diabetes is about to become the number one childhood disease in the region. Children in the Phillipines, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia nearly match their first world peers in overall girth.
To combat the problem, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a new charity called “Don’t Feed the Children“. The charity will be innovative in that it will provide a “money for food” program, whereby third world families can sell their excess food to the charity. The food is then given to the hungry, if any can be found. The charity is based other capitalism-based giving models pioneered by the foundation. According to Bill Gates, “We’re essentially taking the candy out of the mouths of babes, and giving them cash that they can spend on whatever they want. This preserves dignity in that it doesn’t force our cultural values onto the recipient of giving.”
Sunganatrami Rangesh, a six year old Malaysian boy who weighs in at an impressive 95 pounds, is excited about the program. Slashnot’s South-East Asia correspondent Jaffar Lasharesh asked him how he intended to spend the 16 Ringits he’d earned by turning in his chicken rice bowl, he responded that he would be going to MacDonalds for an ice-cream cone and a coke.