750,000 involved in 40-hour fast

Press, 28 March 1983, Page 8

750,000 involved in 40-hour fast

PA Auckland World Vision organisers last evening said that up to 750,000 New Zealanders took part in a 40-hour fast which ended at noon yesterday. The fast, part of World Hunger Week, was organised by World Vision to draw attention to world hunger, particularly in Ethiopia. Mr J. C. Bergin, World Vision’s director of communications, said: "We had

requests for 145,000 packs of literature for participants and we know that many people join unofficially. “On past experience we estimate that each participant has five to eight sponsors, which means we had at least 750,000 people involved.” The fasters included the Governor-General, Sir David Beattie, and Lady Beattie, and many civic leaders.

Mr Bergin said he expected that the fast would raise >1.2 million. Most of the money would be used for World Vision’s relief efforts in Ethiopia, where 3.2 million people have been displaced by severe famine.

World Vision, he said, had already earmarked $500,000 in emergency funds to Ethiopia and $24,000 to the Fiji hurricane relief fund. Mr Bergin said a feature

of the fast was the involvement of children: “It is very important that young people grow up to realise that a child is dying every two seconds because they lack the basic necessities of life.”

In Wellington, World Vision’s district manager, Mr Don Hobbs, said the response to the fast this year had been “spectacular.”

One family in Petone had raised $336.