Washington, DC — Africare joined 14 other U.S.-based international assistance organizations in calling attention to the current hunger crisis in Africa, at a news conference in Baltimore, Md., on Tuesday, December 3.

It is estimated that more than 34 million people are currently at risk of death by starvation in southern, eastern, and western Africa.

Leaders of the participating organizations, also including the American Red Cross, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and Save the Children, gathered to meet with World Food Programme Director, James T. Morris, and Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as to issue the "Baltimore Declaration," a statement on their commitment to addressing the African hunger crisis.

The declaration offered by the coalition of aid groups appeals to governments, citizens' groups, private voluntary organizations, religious institutions, and individual citizens to join in "a massive and urgent response" to the crisis. The coalition declared its own commitment to staving off the impending disaster. As stated by Administrator Natsios, "The purpose of this press conference is to tell people that there's a crisis. When you see faces of emaciated children on television it's too late; you've failed. The time to act is now."

C. Payne Lucas, co-founder and President Emeritus of Africare, spoke at the press conference as an invited representative for the private voluntary organizations that implement food resource programs throughout the world. He drew special attention to the connection between the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and the growing famine. The populations already weakened and sickened by the spread of HIV/AIDS are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of famine, Lucas noted.