Korean Youtube Star Great Library Sounds Alarm On Rise Of Global Hunger
In a global context that has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two, in 2016 (the last available figure) there were 815 million undernourished people in the world, an increase from 777 million in 2015. Most of these food insecure people live in countries affected by conflict.
The campaign imitates a famous first-person shooter computer game, “Player Unknown’s Battle Ground”, but instead of glorifying violence it urges viewers to stop fighting and “Share The Meal” with others, referring to WFP’s fundraising app by the same name. The parody stresses that conflict must end if we are to create a world where everyone has enough to eat. The campaign can be seen at WFP’s campaign webpage (http://cdn.wfp.org/ko/2018/the-great-library/index.html) and Great Library’s YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/buzzbean11).
“I want this campaign to alert many people about the current global hunger situation and WFP’s efforts in helping the people who are suffering. Also, I hope many people can live in a world where there is no conflict, free of hunger,” said Great Library.
Great Library is a South Korean YouTube celebrity who reviews computer games, with more than 1.6 million subscribers. Great Library was a TV show host introducing jobs on Korean Education Broadcasting System (EBS) in 2016 when he became interested in WFP and global hunger issues after interviewing the Head of WFP’s Seoul office. Since then, he has been regularly promoting WFP and Zero Hunger during his daily live YouTube shows and participated in WFP Seoul office’s “Draw Your Faces in the Zero” campaign with his fans commemorating World Food Day (October 16) in 2016.
WFP’s ShareTheMeal app engages millennials around the world to take part in the fight against hunger. This mobile-first fundraising tool allows users to feed a child with just a tap on their device with as little as US$0.50. Since launching two years ago, more than 900,00 people have joined the community worldwide. ShareTheMeal users have shared over 20.3 million meals with thousands of hungry children for some of WFP’s most critical operations including, Yemen, Syria and South Sudan. ShareTheMeal has been awarded the Social Impact Award at the 2017 Google Play Awards.
# # #
WFP is the world's leading humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Jongchul Park, WFP/Seoul, Tel. +82 2 7227395, Mob. +82 10 34083062