Bright man is driven to protect children

Bright man is driven to protect children

6 February 2013 - by BY JOANNE FLEMING

IRELAND’S population has yet to recover from the famine.It’s a sobering thought which local charity chief, Fergus Cooper, hopes we will remember in the light of a new campaign to end world hunger.

It may be over 160 years ago, but he says it is worth recalling how some of the worst affected towns and villages were once on our doorstep.

As head of Save the Children in Northern Ireland, the Bright man is helping to front the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign in a bid to end the hunger trap.

Save the Children is one of 100 major development agencies and faith groups coming together for the campaign — the biggest of its kind since Make Poverty History in 2005. The IF campaign warns of the human and economic cost of hunger in a world where there is enough food to feed everyone, and where almost a billion young people will be permanently trapped in poverty by 2025 because of the damage done to them by hunger and malnutrition when they were children.

Fergus said the message is clear — hunger is not an incurable disease or an unavoidable tragedy.

While commending the UK government for currently sticking to its aid targets, he said the campaign would be calling on David Cameron to use his G8 presidency in 2013 to take action on the root causes of the hunger crisis.

“We are trying to build a mass movement for social justice to put pressure on the world’s leaders to end the scandal of hunger in the world,” he explained. “There will be a number of opportune moments across 2013 for ordinary people to call upon political leaders to make ending hunger an urgent priority. Ireland hosts the EU Presidency through until the end of June 2013 and the G8 Summit will also be held in Enniskillen also in June.”

Nevertheless Fergus said he recognised there was a danger of apathy creeping in after previous major campaigns to tackle the problem.

“There are some naysayers out there, for instance, who say you should not give aid,” he said. “In 1990 the figures were 12 million children dying before the age of five, but because of sustained development, particularly vaccines and better healthcare, we have reduced that globally to 6.8 million who die before the age of five.

“One of the great successes after Live Aid is the considerable progress made in terms of an early warning system for potential emergencies.”

Fergus continued: “Some may feel this is a situation very much removed from their own experience but it is very relevant to our situation in Ireland. In the past we have been subject to two very large famines, in the 1700s and more recently in the 1840s. The population has never recovered from that of nine million in the 1840s.

“Killyleagh was particularly hit by the famine between 1845 and 1848 and feeding stations were still being used in the Poor Houses up until 1850.

“We in Ireland have given so much to the developing world but it is now about building long term sustainability.”

He explained that it was not a lack of investment in developing countries that was the problem, but the impact this was having on land being used, for example, for bio-fuels instead of agriculture.

“These economies should be working for people but across the world there are major inequalities,” he said.

“In Africa they are buying large swathes of land but changing the nature of that land and farmers are being forced off the land into urban poverty.

“IF wants to stop big companies dodging taxes on the profits they make overseas, so that the poorest countries have the resources and infrastructure to free themselves of hunger.

“We want the government to put pressure on companies dodging tax, something we have also seen in the UK recently with major global companies very reluctant to pay any corporation tax.”

Pointing out two million people currently die from starvation annually, it is a subject Fergus is clearly passionate about.

Head of Save the Children in Northern Ireland since June 2010, he has had a long career encompassing the public, private and voluntary sectors.

With a love of hurling, Fergus has also spent his spare time managing the successful Down minor hurling team, which recently won its first Ulster championship in 18 years.

“I used to work at the Volunteer Centre on Saint Patrick’s Avenue in Downpatrick, and did some work in the mental health sector of which I’m very proud,” he said. “I also ran a communications company. It was one of my ambitions, however, to work for Save the Children.”

He now hopes local people will be among the thousands currently signing up online to join the charity’s IF campaign, and hearing how they can make a real difference in 2013.

With this simple message, he concluded: “One in eight people in the world goes to bed hungry.

“Yet there is enough food in the world for everyone, we just need to ensure that the global economy feeds them.”

Join the campaign at www. enoughfoodif.org