11 July 2006
LACK
OF FUNDING THREATENS FOOD AID PROGRAM IN WAR-STRICKEN
WFP needs at least US$12.6 million to distribute 7,700 metric tons of
food aid to targeted Angolan beneficiaries for the remainder of 2006. Donor
support for the agency’s relief programme has diminished alarmingly since last
year.
“The situation has deteriorated to the extent that we will not be able to
distribute food from next month, and will have to close down our operation
entirely in September unless new contributions are received very soon”, said
Sonsoles Ruedas, who is in charge of WFP’s operation in the country.
A WFP study conducted late last year in rural areas of southern and
eastern Angola indicated that more than 900,000 people still do not get enough
food, and that at least 45 percent of children under the age of five are
chronically malnourished – a condition that can irreversibly impair learning
ability.
WFP launched a new food aid program in April, aimed at alleviating the
suffering of the poorest and thereby supporting post-war reconstruction. It
plans to assist more than 700,000 children in primary schools, pregnant and
nursing women, and HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and pellagra sufferers.
The operation is also designed to support more than 80,000 refugees
expected to return home from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and
WFP
currently provides school meals to 220,000 Angolan children, and is planning to
increase the caseload by 100,000 by the end of the year - if funding becomes
available. The agency is also helping to design a national school-feeding
program to be fully funded and implemented by the Ministry of Education.
The
Government of Angola is committed to providing US $1.3 million towards
school-feeding in 2006, and may give more in 2007 and 2008.
The
plan calls for the government to launch its own program next year in areas
where WFP is not already providing school-feeding, and to eventually provide
food for all schools in the country.
Donors
to WFP’s three-year (April 2006-March 2009) Protracted Relief and Recovery
Operation for Angola, which seeks to mobilise 110,000 metric tons of
commodities valued at US$89.8 million: Angola (US$1.9m), Canada (US$438,596),
France (US$3.6m), Ireland (US$55,910), Italy (US$318,530), Portugal (US$117,648),
USA (US$3.5m), Private donors (US$182,051) and multilateral (US$1.1m)
# # #
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each
year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their
nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the
world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just
19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy
meal at school – a gift of hope for a brighter future.
Visit our website: www.wfp.org
For more
information please contact:
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Mob. +41-792857304
Manuel Cristovao, WFP/Luanda,
Tel. +244-222-310-017, Mob. +244-924-068-535
Patricia Lucas,
WFP/Johannesburg, Tel. +27-517-1536, Mob. +27-83-461-1794
Gerald
Bourke, WFP/Rome, Tel +39-06-65132141, Mob +39-3486099466
Trevor Rowe, WFP/
Gregory Barrow,
WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Mob. +44-7968-008474
Jennifer Parmelee,
WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383