NYマラソン3位のテルガド選手を支えたWFPの学校給食 （英文のみ）

WFP News Release
5 November 2006

ANOTHER SUCCESS FOR WORLD RECORD MARATHONER AND MILLIONS OF CHILDREN WORLDWIDE

New York - The United Nations World Food Programme warmly congratulated its Ambassador against Hunger, top record holder Paul Tergat, on his performance today in New York where he finished third place in the world’s most prestigious marathon race.

"We congratulate Paul on this wonderful success. He has shown again what a fighter he is, and we salute his humanitarian work on behalf of WFP,” said WFP Executive Director, James Morris.

“Paul fights on behalf of hungry children since he knows firsthand what it means to go to sleep hungry. We could not have a better friend -- Paul is an inspiration for all of us,” said Morris.

Paul Tergat was only eight years old when he started receiving daily free school lunches from WFP in his poor home village in Kenya. Tergat has often said those meals changed his life forever.

“WFP’s school feeding changed my life and the lives of many other young people in Kenya. School feeding gave us the opportunity to attend school, and to grow up so we could contribute to our communities, our country and the world at large,” said Tergat before today’s race.

Since becoming a WFP “Ambassador against Hunger” in 2004, Tergat has used his running career to raise awareness about hungry children worldwide and WFP’s school feeding program. As a hungry child in the drought and poverty-stricken district of Baringo, Kenya, he struggled to walk the three miles to school. School meals – which nourish children while increasing enrolment and attendance - allowed him to continue his education.

Last year, WFP provided school meals to 21 million children in 74 countries.

“There are many millions of children around the world who do not go to school because they do not have enough food. That is just shameful. We need to give them the opportunity to go to school, and to learn more. Remember one thing: education is the key to life. And without education, it's very difficult to make the wise choices which are going to define a child’s life,” Tergat said.

“We are so proud that Paul is our partner and our Ambassador. He is such a humble and good man. Paul’s life story shows that with a little extra help, we can make a huge difference in a child’s life. A daily meal at school from WFP has helped him become what he is today: the fastest marathon runner in the world. He works so hard to help hungry children in Africa and we deeply thank him for that,” said WFP’s Morris.

In 2003 in Berlin, Germany, Tergat became the first man to run the marathon in less than two hours five minutes – a world record still standing three years later. Paul finished Sunday’s race in 2:10:10 hours and earned a bronze medal, making him a contender in the inaugural year of the World Marathon Majors – a new series offering a prize to the top male and female runners in five marathons world-wide.

WFP is the largest aid organization in the world, bringing food to more than 90 million people in over 80 countries every year. It costs just 19 US cents per day for WFP to feed a hungry child in school.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school – a gift of hope for a brighter future. Visit our website: www.wfp.org

WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/english/?n=999.

WFP now has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Bettina Luescher, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-212-9635196, Cell. +1-646-8241112, luescher@un.org
Brenda Barton, Deputy Director of Communications, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-06-65132602, Cell. +39-3472582217 (ISDN line available)
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Cell. +44-7968-008474
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Cell. +41-792857304
Cécile Sportis, WFP/Paris, Tel. +33-1-70385330, Cell. +33-6161-68266
Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383