Swiss singer DJ BOBO joins UN campaign against hunger

Swiss winner of some 10 ‘World Music Awards’ DJ BOBO today joined Brazilian football superstar Ronaldinho, Cape-Verdian singer Cesaria Evora and world record breaking marathon runner Paul Tergat, among others, as a National Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

“Travelling around the world has made me sensitive to human suffering,” DJ BOBO, the first Swiss to take up this role, said. “It is a privilege to be able to help. The advantage of fame is that I can be heard and I have to seize this opportunity.”

As WFP Ambassador, the singer from the Swiss Canton of Aargau will use his fame by seeking to increase public awareness of the problem of hunger and child hunger, in particular, focusing on school feeding programmes.

Every five seconds a child dies of hunger somewhere in the world. Some 400 million children know what it is like to go to bed at night on an empty stomach. For 40 years, WFP has been running school feeding programmes which increase school attendance and enrolment. By providing free meals at school, it encourages parents to send their children to learn.

“I was captivated by the school feeding programmes,” DJ BOBO said. “The idea behind them is very clever. In order to eat, these kids must go to school. Later on in life, these same children in turn send their kids to school because they have understood how important it is.”

He will embark on his first field visit to Ethiopia in January, where he will become familiar with food aid operations in favour of malnourished Ethiopians.

“We are thrilled that a singer as talented and as credible as DJ BOBO has decided to lend his talent to reduce the spectre of hunger in the world,” the Director of the WFP Geneva Office said.