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Poland's Walesa calls for global solidarity fund

10 Nov 2006 18:15:35 GMT
Source: Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Nobel laureate and former Polish President Lech Walesa on Friday proposed a world solidarity fund, fed by individual contributions to fight poverty and malnutrition and bolster education.

The new fund could be administered by the U.N. secretary-general and would ask individuals to give $5 or $10 a year, "for most, a meaningless sum of money," Walesa said at a ceremony launching the first International Human Solidarity Day, to be observed annually on Dec. 20 beginning this year.

"What we need today is an idea that would consolidate our actions, that would make each of us responsible for the fate of the whole world," Walesa said. "I am confident that our shared dreams can change the fate of the world, if combined with practical actions."

Walesa said the fund could help feed schoolchildren, build schools, train teachers and buy books, computers and other educational materials.

Providing schools with wider access to computers and the Internet would give more schoolchildren a window into the wider world and give them "hope for a better future, for a dignified life," he said.

Walesa said about a quarter of the Polish population supported his Solidarity movement, the trade union federation that challenged the communist government in Warsaw, and he hoped a quarter of the world population would support the new fund.

If one out of four of the world's 6.6 billion people each contributed $5 to $10, that would raise some $8 billion to $16 billion a year. Walesa gave no estimate of how much would be needed for such a fund to reach its goals.

Solidarity changed the face of Poland and "the idea of human solidarity is also capable of transforming today's world," he said.

Walesa, 63, was a shipyard electrician who led Poland's Solidarity movement and became that country's president in 1990, serving a five-year term.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

International Human Solidarity Day was created by the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly in 2005 as part of the world body's efforts to eradicate poverty.

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Last updated:Fri Nov 10 18:17:08 2006