HDI Spokesperson Mary Wilson in Kansas City for International Food Aid Conference

 

April 21, 2008 — Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Spokesperson for the Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI), traveled to Kansas City, Missouri April 14-15 for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Food Aid Conference.  The conference gathered more than 800 participants from over 31 countries for discussions on food security in the developing world.   Mary spoke on HDI's innovative linkage of mine action programs and agricultural rehabilitation and feeding programs.

Mary Gave a presentation on the Humpty Dumpty Institute’s Mine Action programs in Laos and Sri Lanka and spoke about her recent visit to these countries, thanking USDA for their support.   She reported that over the past 12 months the number of children reached by HDI’s project in Laos had risen by over 20 percent from 10,000 to slightly over 12,000 kids.  Mary spoke of how touched she was to meet a team of all women deminers, and children whose first meal of the day is often that provided by HDI.  HDI received the first ever USDA Food for Education grant for Laos to improve basic education and address unexploded ordnance (UXO) as a barrier to school attendance. (It is also the first initiative in Laos to explicitly link UXO clearance with increased school attendance through school feeding.)  She also reported that the Sri Lanka program, despite the continuing violence, recorded a 41 percent increase in the amount of milk collected over the previous year, and about her tour of Akarawitta Village, a village established by the Sri Lankan government for victims of landmines and their survivors.  The highlight of Mary's tour in Sri Lanka was a benefit concert to raise money for Sri Lankan landmine victims.  In Sri Lanka, HDI's two-year $4 million USDA Food for Progress project in the Jaffna Peninsula helps clear landmines on dairy farmland and redevelop the dairy and live stock industry in northern Sri Lanka. In her travels to both Sri Lanka and Laos, Mary Wilson saw how HDI's programs have resulted in more secure dairy farming; the revitalization of the agricultural sector; a safer environment for kids by removing UXO around schools; greater enrollment and attendance at local schools; healthier children and families; and improved literacy and educational achievement.

Pat Sheikh, Deputy Administrator of the Office for Capacity Building and Development of the Foreign Agricultural Service at USDA said. “Mary Wilson is a shining example of U.S. public diplomacy at its best.  Her presence at the conference and her work on the issue of food security and landmines serves to further the USDA's efforts around the world.”

She also performed several songs at the Welcome Reception for the conference on Monday, April 14, 2008.  The audience of over 600 VIPs loved the Supremes songs and great Motown hits, getting senior USDA officials and conference participants dancing and singing in the aisles.

If you would like to assist Mary Wilson and HDI in providing a safer environment for children and farmers by removing landmines and UXO around schools and farms, please make a small donation.