Debt Relief is Hunger Relief

Bread for the World
Thursday, 14 September 2000

Statement by Sister Christine Vladimiroff
Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania
Board Chair, Bread for the World

For more than 25 years, Bread for the World has advocated for policies that assist our brothers and sisters in need around the world. In 1999, we joined with partners in observing the Jubilee year and calling for cancellation of poor country debt. Bread for the World members have since generated more than 150,000 letters to their members of Congress in support of debt relief.

Today, we applaud the Clinton administration for its leadership on this issue. We also acknowledge the step the House took earlier this summer when it voted to increase debt relief funding to $225 million. But now Congress must truly show its moral courage and pass the necessary funding — $435 million for fiscal year 2001 and $375 million in subsequent years — to fulfill our promises made at the G-7 conference in Cologne last year.

The United States is the most powerful country in the world. Every $1 the United States contributes to debt relief will leverage an additional $20 from other countries. We have an opportunity for leadership. If we fail to uphold our part of the agreement, other creditor countries will reduce their support as well.

Let's be very clear about this: Poor country debt keeps children from getting the food and education they need. It keeps families from receiving health care. It keeps millions of people bound to poverty. Debt relief is hunger relief. Debt relief is medical care for children. Debt relief is clean water and roads for farmers. In our robust economy, it is time for Congress to appropriate this relatively small amount of money that would make a big impact on children and families in poverty-stricken countries.

We cannot abandon our responsibility. By assisting those who are most vulnerable, a preferential option for the poor strengthens the entire community. Deprivation and powerlessness of the poor — no matter where they live — wounds the whole human community. Now is the time to be people of our word, to make good our commitment, to free our sisters and brothers and celebrate Jubilee as one human family.

Bread for the World members and other people of faith are trusting that Congress has heard the cry of poor people and our voices raised on their behalf: Fully fund debt relief this year!

For more information, or to contact Bread for the World, see their website at: www.bread.org