U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Senator John Kerry and Congressman Jack Reed announced today that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has approved a proposal to provide Cape Verde with $15.7 million in food aid over the next five years. Earlier in the year, US AID had expressed an interest in ending its relief program in order to coincide with the scheduled closing of the USAID mission in Cape Verde this September. To address USAID's opposition to continuing food assistance, the three Members of Congress organized a bipartisan coalition of other Members of Congress to convince USAID of the importance of continuing this aid. In the process, Frank also worked with the State Department to establish support for this assistance and to shepherd the food aid proposal through the application process.

"Historically, Cape Verde has relied on the U.S. to supply over a third of its food, and ending the program abruptly would have caused irreperable damage to the health of its citizens," Frank said. "This five year program ensures that Cape Verde can meet the nutritional requirements of its people while continuing to develop the ability to meet its own food needs. Moreover, as one of the only countries in Africa that has made the peaceful and stable transition to multi-party democracy, Cape Verde represents a model of political life in Africa which we have an obligation to support and an interest in seeing succeed."

Congressman Jack Reed also applauded USAID's decision. "This small but important support will provide Cape Verdean's with basic food requirements and help maintain economic stability in Cape Verde, one of the first African countries to embrace democracy," Reed said. "I believe the U.S. should continue to support Cape Verde's effort to transition itself from a country dependent on foreign aid to one with a secure private sector, and I commend Congressman Frank for coordinating this important effort."

Please Email or write to the Congressmen and the Senator expressing your appreciation of their efforts on this most important matter. Special thanks go to Chad Call for his exceptional efforts in support of the cause and to all of you good people out there who took the time to send Email and letters to these officials and agencies.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has recently held some important meetings concerning the PL 480, Title II food aid program to Cape Verde. A new multi- year plan has been presented to U.S. AID for their review and initial response has been positive. However, this does not mean that food aid to Cape Verde will continue.

At this point, the decision on USAID's part, namely the Bureau for Humanitarian Relief (BHR), comes down to the decision of allocating scarce food resources between many needy countries. In principle, BHR will allocate food-aid to the neediest countries with sound technical proposals for the use of the food-aid. Popular support for food-aid to Cape Verde from concerned U.S. citizens and their elected representatives has had the impact of raising the awareness of Cape Verde of government officials overseeing the food-aid program.

Continued expressions of support for the proposed U.S. food-aid program to Cape Verde from the Government of Cape Verde, other international donors, and friends of Cape Verde may have an impact on the decision of the BHR of USAID to continue food-aid to Cape Verde. It is expected that USAID will announce its decision on food-aid programs in late August.

Please let the United States government know that you support the PL 480, Title II food aid program in Cape Verde. CLICK HERE for further instructions.

If you have already contacted the government, please do so again to reiterate your concerns. Thank you to all of those who have helped to save the food aid program in Cape Verde

Don't forget to thank your legislator.

For more information please contact Chad Call at chadc@bridge.net