Gorta
 |
|
| Founded | 8 November 1965 |
|---|---|
| CHY5678 | |
| Registration no. | 28228 |
| Focus | Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition; Enterprise Development; and Water and Sanitation |
| Location |
|
| Origins | Dublin, Ireland |
|
Area served
|
Sub-Saharan Africa |
|
Key people
|
Raymond Jordan (CEO) Tom Kitt (chairman) |
| Slogan | "make hunger history" |
| Mission | "A prosperous rural Africa where smallholder farmers and their families thrive" |
| Website | www.gorta.org |
|
Formerly called
|
Gorta: The Freedom From Hunger Council |
Gorta (English: "Extreme Want" or "Hunger") is Ireland’s longest-running international development organisation. Following a merger with Self Help Africa in July 2014 the organisation will operate in Ireland as Gorta-Self Help Africa.
Gorta works with smallholder farmers, focusing on long term agricultural development projects. As of 2014, the merged organisation operates in 10 countries across Africa and also supports key initiatives in a further two.
The organisation was established in 1965 as Gorta: The Freedom from Hunger Council. It was founded in response to a call by the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FFHC) for member countries to raise public awareness and financial support for long-term agricultural development.
Through its projects, Gorta’s stated aim is the empowerment of communities to eradicate hunger and poverty, with particular emphasis on food and water security and unrestricted access to secure and environmentally sustainable livelihoods.
Gorta UK is an affiliate of Gorta and raises funds from public donors within the UK.
Gorta was established in 1965 as Gorta: The Freedom from Hunger Council of Ireland after the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) called upon the Irish government to create a hunger-related agency that would raise general awareness and public support for long-term agricultural development. Initially set up by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Gorta subsequently moved to the remit of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1979, and in 1998 Gorta relinquished its formal links with the Irish Government to become a completely independent NGO with its head office in Dublin. Gorta remains the Irish affiliate organisation of the FAO.
The word Gorta, meaning "extreme want" or "hunger" in the Irish language, was chosen for the new body to reflect both the work of the organisation in combating hunger and as a deliberate reference designed to reflect Ireland’s own legacy of hardship during the Great Famine known in Irish as An Gorta Mór.
Over its five-decade history Gorta has funded small and large-scale agricultural development projects in close to 50 countries across Africa, Asia, South and Central America. In recent years the majority of the projects have been focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of funding for a large-scale rehabilitation centre for differently abled children in Tamil Nadu, India.
Gorta’s work since 1965 has focused on eradicating hunger by supporting both small and large-scale agricultural development projects. The very first project in 1965 was the establishment of a village settlement and farmers’ training school in rural Tanzania.
...
Wikipedia