The president of an international humanitarian organization headquartered in Atlanta is visiting Iowa as part of a campaign to end worldwide poverty. CARE president Peter Bell arrived in Des Moines as part of the “Better Safer World” campaign. He says the polling data suggests there’s an awareness of global poverty and hunger in the world and that people consider it an important issue. He says the problem is getting people to act on that conviction. Bell says their efforts now are focused on getting Iowans and others to push the issue with their elected representatives. He says he wants people to impress on leaders that the United States will make ending global poverty a top priority. He says getting leaders to back the president’s initiative on H-I-V/Aids is one example. Bell says getting the leaders of the U.S. to put the issue at the forefront would make an enormous impact. He says, “Just imagine if we had a president of the United States who gave the same strategic priority to ending global poverty that President Bush has given to prosecuting the war in Iraq.” Bell says they’re trying to get the Democratic presidential candidates here for the caucuses to take up the issue. He says they have high hopes that some of them will step forward, but it hasn’t happened yet. Bell says Iowans and others need to keep asking questions about the problem of world poverty in hopes of getting the candidates to address the issue. Bell will wrap up his visit to Iowa today (Wednesday).
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