One hundred heads of State and 60.000 delegates: figures to make your head spin? They are nothing if we consider the one billion, 200 million children  who today are under nine years old. These are, in fact, the individuals who are directly affected by the accords that will stem from this world conference. 

Johannesburg is distant, but the themes dealt with regard us directly, even professionally.  A long time ago, a colleague of ours from Brescia, Mauro Fasani, who has been working in Third World Countries for years, sent me some suggestions with regards to cooperation; I think  it’s  interesting to quote some passages from his letter.   "If  international cooperation in the developing Countries has in the last 20-30 years mainly had the role of humanitarian relief, it now realizes that the relationship between "rich donor and poor beneficiary"  must be considered from a strategic point of view and with a completely different commitment. In meetings involving the Great Nations of the World, proposals in this sense become increasingly debated, with the precise aim of avoiding that the poverty of many populations, in a crescendo of desperation, becomes more and more a source of serious and dangerous problems for developed countries. In the components which constitute underdevelopment,  hunger and the bad use of natural resources are the objectives that require the intervention of our profession. Through direct experience in Africa and Latin America, I have seen valid technicians of agronomy at work, but, unfortunately, also quite a lot self-styled agronomists without either qualifications or ability."  It is not a case of creating something new, but one of thinking and acting in a new, higher way, aware that every choice and intervention which we employ  goes well beyond our private sphere. Today, our association, Terredelsud, offers us a new opportunity. Why not let ourselves be, or indeed, desire to be involved?  

Many people are waiting for our intervention. As  “field” professionals, also in this case we aim for  excellence, thinking particularly about  the children,  the children of the whole world, because they really are our future.