LG Electronics First Asian Company to Support UNWFP Fight Hunger in Africa
To Donate KRW 3 Billion for Horn of Africa Project
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and LG Electronics (LG), global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, today announced a multi-year partnership to fight poverty and hunger in the drought-afflicted Horn of Africa region.
Under the banner of a “Partnership of Hope,” LG pledged one billion Korean Won (USD 760,000) per year for three years in support of WFP’s projects to alleviate hunger in Kenya and Ethiopia. It is the first public-private partnership where a private Korean company has made a sizeable donation to support development projects in Africa. The projects will target some 23,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the Nairobi slums of Kenya and in remote rural areas of Ethiopia.
"This agreement marks WFP’s first large-scale multi-year corporate donation from Asia to Africa,” remarked Monica Marshall, Head of Global Private Partnerships at WFP. “We are honored to cross this milestone with LG Electronics. This help for Kenya and Ethiopia could not have come at better time, considering the gravity of the food crisis in the Horn of Africa region today.”
LG and the WFP signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) earlier today at the Korean company’s headquarters in Seoul in the presence of executives from both organizations. Korean celebrity and WFP National Ambassador against Hunger, Jang Dong-gun, also attended the MOU signing.
“As a global company, LG Electronics will not turn a blind eye to abject poverty and environmental degradation,” said Mr. Young-kee Kim, Executive Vice President of LGE. “These two issues are closely linked, and it is only through more responsible behavior that they can both be overcome. Today, we are pledging our commitment as a global citizen to help build a foundation for self-sufficiency in one of the neediest parts of the world.”
From his end, the Managing Director of LG Electronics Levant, Mr. Kevin Cha, said, “Poverty and hunger are increasingly inflicting more pain and suffering on people and communities around the world, and we, at LG Electronics, intend to make an effort to alleviate that suffering. Through this partnership with the United Nations World Food Program, and stemming from our genuine commitment to this cause, among others, we hope to address and help find solutions to the dire plight of some of our fellow human beings.”
The Horn of Africa region has suffered a series of phenomena in recent years that have plunged millions of people into even further poverty and hunger. Already affected by various factors such as high food prices, civil unrest and drought, residents of the region are now also feeling the toll of the global financial crisis. The WFP-LGE program will support the efforts to mitigate poverty in rural Ethiopia by providing agricultural support, rations for rural villagers engaged in environmental projects and meals for schoolchildren. In Kenya, the partnership will provide free meals to students, food and nutrition assistance for AIDS orphans and other vulnerable HIV affected children and food support for children under 5 years old.
