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- 10/21/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at the White House Development Summit
- 10/08/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at The President's Freedom Agenda
- 10/01/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the Ceremony Marking the Full Operational Capacity of Africa Command (AFRICOM)
- 09/25/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at 2008 Millennium Development Goal Malaria Summit, New York - "U.S. Leadership in the Fight Against Malaria"
- 09/22/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the White House Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy - "U.S. Commitment to Advancing Global Literacy"
 RSS Feed for Recent USAID Speeches and Testimony
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Testimonial by Anne Ralte
Humanitarian Assistance Advisor
Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination, USAID
Beneficiary of Title II Food Aid Program, India, 1963 - 1971
"Bringing Hope to the Hungry: Food Assistance in the New Millennium"
Testimonial Given at the Food For Peace 50th Anniversary
Washington, D.C.
July 21, 2004
Thank you to our Administrator and to Lauren for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. I would not be here without USAID and U.S. foreign aid.
I come from a remote, mountainous part of eastern India (near Burma, now Myanmar) and belong to a small tribal group called the Mizos - with our own dialect and culture, completely different from the rest of India. Most families, like mine, made their living by farming, and lived in simple wooden houses built on stilts along the hill slopes -- with no running water or electricity. I grew up working in our rice farm and sometimes going to school - which was a two mile walk each way, up and down several hills. After my father died, when I was five years old, my mother struggled to take care of the farm and the small home bakery that my father had started. While we (children) were unaware of the possibilities outside our small community, my mother knew that life could be better for us. She told us that to do better we would have to leave our backward tribal area, and to do better, she said, also meant going to a school where English was the only language spoken - which meant going to other places in India, quite far away from the community - which was frowned upon. Now, forty plus years later, my mother's vision has become widely accepted.
This is how I ended up in the school that had the Title II food aid program. Welland Gouldsmith School is in a very old part of Calcutta and is connected to the Old Mission Church, the first Anglican Church set up in West Bengal by the British. It was, and still is, a school for poor disadvantaged children. When I was ten, my mother died, and with no other place to go to, I stayed in the school as my home until I was 18, when I finished the equivalent of your high school. Luckily for me, a family from New York found me through the Christian Children's Fund and took a keen interest in me early on - as they were teachers in White Plains NY, and they knew I just "loved" to study. They supported me through my school years and at 18, they brought me to the U.S. for further studies.
When I look back to my humble beginning, not a single day passes without me thinking how fortunate I am. Without U.S. food aid, the school could not have fed me and the rest of the disadvantaged children-most without parents. We received the essentials -- bulgur wheat and milk (for our breakfast porridge), milk and bread for our mid-morning snack, and rice - which was a staple for lunch and dinner along with dhal (lentils).
When you're hungry, you cannot focus on anything except food (and those who came here without breakfast, or on a diet can relate to this). Because of Title II food aid, we were well nourished, so we could focus on our school work and be competitive in the Senior Cambridge Exams - which is required for college. Doing well in school gave me the chance to come to the U.S. This in turn led to my work in international development - and eventually led me to Food for Peace where I worked from 1996 to 2000. I used my personal experience with food aid in my work at Food for Peace, and now at the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination where I work…this means always keeping the higher perspective that we are here to make a difference, and to use our positions and influence, at whatever level, for the good of the beneficiary.
I also know from my personal experience growing up with a strong, visionary mother, that one person can make a huge difference -- that one person can change a community's belief, an entire way of life and the future. We are fortunate to be in a noble line of work that can transform people's lives, and whether they survive (only), or thrive (like myself), or perish may depend on our wisdom (or lack of) and the choices we make. It is a serious business.
This is why I am so passionate about our joint effort with the State Department to develop a standardized methodology to assess needs and prioritize resources. This is the SMART initiative, which is a multi-partner, long-term vision that will eventually institutionalize evidence-based reporting and monitoring across all humanitarian organizations. It is included in the G-8 Action Plan on Ending Famine. I'm happy to report this has the commitment of our major partners and the work is moving forward. For more information, please visit www.smartindicators.org which is our collective website, and… since I have everyone's attention…this [SMART initiative] needs funding.
I have a valid appreciation (having worked at Food for Peace) for all the dedicated organizations and colleagues from USAID, USDA, Title II PVOs and NGOs, and the World Food Program, who go through many layers of process to make sure that at the end of the day, hungry children are fed - and hopefully go on to grow up strong (like me) and lend a hand.
I am forever grateful to the good people of the United States. I have benefited directly from your compassion and generosity. I know there are many more like me, thousands of "us" in about 150 countries, who survived (and some who went through much more difficult times than I did) and thrived due to the American value of caring for others. I hope their stories will be told. I thought it was fitting (and the universe does work in mysterious ways) that I happened to be the person who helped Food for Peace tell its story of how Title II food aid impacts lives in humanitarian crises. With the help of our implementing partners (many present here) who adapted to our new reporting needs, we were able to provide tangible evidence that our Title II emergency food aid provides significant benefits.
I am eternally grateful to USAID's Title II food aid program. Since I'm one of the first beneficiaries to speak, I can say that all beneficiaries are very grateful - but that we don't express this enough. We are thankful to the early visionaries of the Food for Peace program that put this into place. I am thankful to CARE India that delivered the food to my school, and to the Christian Children's Fund that gave me my sponsors, now my parents -- Drs. Donald and Sally Hoople. No child could ask for better parents. I also want to acknowledge my husband, Joe Connors, who is here today, who has supported my work for 25 years, and helped me overcome many more obstacles in my adult life so I can make a difference.
From where I stand, the U.S. Government has much to be proud of for caring for so many around the world. "Bringing Hope to the Hungry" - this is what Food for Peace did for me - and much more. Thank you.
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