Bertini visits kids getting food aid in Ethiopia. A terrible drought had ruined crops there.
| Bertini visits kids getting food aid in Ethiopia. A terrible drought had ruined crops there. |
Catherine Bertini has 90 million hungry mouths to feed. She has traveled the world as chief of the United Nations World Food Program for nine years. Bertini is responsible for raising money and "making sure food gets to the right people at the right time." She is the first American and the first woman to head the WFP, whose work takes place mostly in very poor nations like Ethiopia, Somalia and India.
Growing up in Cortland, N.Y., Bertini wanted to be a music teacher. Then she became interested in government service. She studied political science at the State University of New York in Albany, then worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since taking over the WFP, which is based in Italy, she has seen 25 countries-including Vietnam, Mexico and Botswana-"graduate" from receiving emergency aid to providing food for their people.
Bertini set a goal that 80% of relief food should go to women, since most refugees are women and children. In the past, most food aid went to men. The WFP now delivers more than 60% to women to share with their families. Another goal: giving half of aid for school meals to girls. In places where few girls attend school, this policy has encouraged more families to educate their daughters. One of the best things about her job, Bertini says, is "seeing what a difference it makes to have women empowered. They're empowered when we give them food."
Bertini plans to be back in the U.S. by April 2002, when her second five-year term ends. For now, she has the job of a lifetime. "In how many places," she asks, "do you get the chance to improve the lives of millions of people?"