Lawmakers from Mind­anao have credited young celebrity Kristina Cassandra “KC” Concepcion for her exemplary humanitarian work as the country’s ambassador against hunger.“We applaud KC for her outstanding efforts to raise public awareness here and abroad of the need for effec­tive solutions to the grow­ing humanitarian needs of Mindanao,” Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Meñdoza said.

“The people of Cotabato and the whole of Mindanao are highly grateful to KC for using her sway as a celebrity to help address wide­spread hunger and the conflict-induced dis­lodgment of people,” Taliño-Mendoza said. She urged donors to “abundantly sup­port” KC’s humanitarian activities. In her capacity as the United Nations World Food Programme’s Philippine am­bassador against hunger, KC has visited the towns of Midsayap and Pikit, both in Taliño­Mendoza’s district.

During her visits, KC, 24, extended food aid to children in a bid to check malnutrition and boost school attendance. An actress, singer, model, stage actor and video performance artist, KC is the only daughter of Gabby Concepcion and Sharon Senator Francis “Kiko” Pan­gilinan.
“KC has definitely helped to raise hope, and inspire others to do their share in easing hunger in Mindan­ao,” Taliño-Mendoza said. Hunger, internal displace­ment and armed conflict all form part of a vicious cycle, according to the Cotabato lawmaker.

According to the Ge­neva-based Internal Dis­placement Monitoring Cen­ter (IDMC), the Philippines had the largest number of “conflict-induced” newly inter­nally displaced people in 2008. The IDMC said that last year, some 600,000 people fled fighting between the Philippine military and rebel groups in Mind­anao. They accounted for 13 percent of the 4.6 million newly internally displaced people around the world in 2008. Besides the Philippines, the IDMC also noted massive new internal displacements in Sudan, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Pakistan, Colombia, Soma­lia, Sri Lanka and India.

The IDMC is a unit of the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council, an indepen­dent, humanitarian non-governmental or­ganization providing aid, protection and durable solutions to refugees and internally displaced