U.S. Provides Wheat To Fill Urgent Food Gaps in Syria
“As part of our nearly $510 million in humanitarian aid to help those affected by the crisis in Syria, wheat recently provided by the United States will feed more than one million people in Syria for four months.
The 25,000 metric tons of wheat donated to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will be milled into flour and distributed to vulnerable families across Syria’s 14 Governorates through WFP as part of a monthly food ration. In addition to the 25 kilogram bag of flour that is being provided in these monthly food kits, families receive vegetable oil, pasta, bulgur, canned pulses and sugar.” Read More
![Today, Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, Esther Brimmer met with Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) Ertharin Cousin at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC. [May 10, 2013/State Department Photo]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/267dbfa17e384b2e9ce8ad780845118f/tumblr_mmletiAwaQ1r391tko1_250.jpg)
Today, Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, Esther Brimmer met with Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) Ertharin Cousin at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC. [May 10, 2013/State Department Photo]
The United Nations World Food Programme has started providing urgently-needed food assistance to the conflict-affected people in Blue Nile state. This is the first time that the agency has distributed food assistance since the conflict broke out in September 2011, forcing thousands to flee their homes, many of them crossing into neighbouring Ethiopia and South Sudan. Learn More
10 facts about women and hunger and the crucial role they play in defeating hunger. Celebrate International Women’s Day on Friday, March 6th! What will you be doing to celebrate?
A readout of Ambassador David Lane’s recent trip to Tanzania.
Freddy tell us about his school, the Arkatan Primary School in the Monduli district of Tanzania. Attendance rates have rise from 55% to 89% thanks to the WFP.
Fact Sheet: U.S. Government Assistance to Syria
The United States supports the Syrian people’s aspirations for a Syrian-led transition to a democratic, inclusive, and peaceful Syria. Over nearly two years of unrest and violence, the United Nations estimates that 60,000 Syrians have been killed. Nearly 600,000 Syrians have registered or are awaiting registration in neighboring countries, while an additional 2.5 million persons are internally displaced and 4 million people inside Syria are in need of assistance. The Syrian regime has sacrificed all legitimacy in a vicious effort to cling to power. U.S. assistance includes vigorousdiplomatic support of the newly formed Syrian Opposition Coalition, humanitarian assistance to help those affected by the conflict, and non-lethal support for local councils and civil society inside Syria.
Sakila village had a problem with soil erosion. The 150,000 villagers who live skattered in the beautiful foothills of the Mount Meru volcano, are primarily subsistence farmers and livestock keepers. In recent years, rains have been washing their rich soil down into the valley below, leading to degradation of their land and less productivity. A World Food Programme (WFP) Food for Assets program has been employing villagers to dig contours into the hillside – they pay them with food for their families. Although a lot of labor goes into making these contours, the benefits have great. Whereas previously they were able to produce only about 3 bags of maize per acre, now they are able to produce 15. Some villagers at first did not want the contours dug into their land, but when they saw their neighbors’ production increase, they joined the projects as well. Ambassador Lane and the journalists accompanying him went to see the contours and then were warmly welcomed by some of the villagers. The Ambassador also helped distribute the food they were receiving in exchange for their days of worked.
This woman has impressed many people with her strength and determination. Maybe her name has helped her! Fortunata is a single woman raising three children in the village of Leki Tatu, in the Arusha region of Tanzania. She was struggling to make ends meet by farming ½ an acre of rice, until she joined the World Food Programme (WFP) Food for Asset program – it has turned her life around. Thanks to the new irrigation scheme for the village and with the help of best farming practices she was also taught, Fortunata was able to properly farm her small ½ acre rice plot. The production of her small plot improved so much that has earned enough money to build herself a new brick home to replace her mud hut (she keeps the chickens there now) and purchase two more acres of land. Now she can also pay to send her children to school.
This World Food Programme (WFP) Food for Asset program enables villagers of Leki Tatu in the Arusha region of Tanzania to improve their agriculture and nutrition by creating an irrigation scheme and community fishing ponds. Villagers are encouraged to work on constructing irrigation canals and fish ponds in exchange for food - they are paid a daily ration of maize, beans and vegetable oil for the work they do. Through the irrigation scheme the farmers have access to water on a regular basis in a drought prone area. Income generated from the sale of Tilapia fish from the community fish ponds goes towards a collective fund for the community. There are now 108 fish ponds in the village. The fish also means households can introduce much needed variety into thier diet.
What’s the biggest single risk to global health? See the World Food Program’s visually compelling 2012 Hunger Map
Haiti: A Landscape After Hurricane Sandy
800 tons of food on the way to Haiti for farmers & families hit hard by Sandy. See how the World Food Program is getting the job done
(Copyright: WFP/ Stephanie Tremblay)
Just how many people does the World Food Program feed each year? How much does that cost and where does it get the money? Find the answers to these questions and more in this infographic about WFP—the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency.
Hungry Planet Video: Espisode 18
In this episode: emergency support helps build farmers’ resilience against the growing food crisis in the Sahel; thousands of Syrian refugees search for safety and shelter in the impoverished Beqaa Valley in Lebanon; and a system to filter and reuse grey water for irrigation could change millions of lives in Brazil.
