Friends of WFP Staff, Volunteers Travel to Kenya

Friends of WFP Staff, Volunteers Visit WFP Programs in Kenya

In fall 2009, a group of volunteers and staff from Friends of the World Food Program (Friends of WFP) traveled to Kenya to experience the work of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in action. From the capital city of Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa, they visited food assistance operations that demonstrate how WFP is saving the lives of Kenyans every day. Such food assistance programs on the visit included school meals programs, HIV/AIDS clinics and a food distribution center. Learn more about this trip by looking through the interactive features below.


 

HIV/AIDS and Nutrition

 

School Meals

 


Kibera

Food for Work - Water Basin 

View photo gallery.

Listen to the "Live from Nairobi" podcast, featuring Pippa Bradford, WFP Deputy Country Director for Kenya, WFP Committee Volunteers, and Friends of WFP staff.

Stories of Success

Steven Kioku
Steven is an agricultural technical engineer in Kenya with World Vision International, a partner organization of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). He provides invaluable expertise in agricultural systems that help local people use land more effectively and efficiently through WFP’s food for training program. When program participants grow their own food independently, communities can become less dependent on food aid from WFP.

Steven works at the Ndugumnani community farm in the rural Kilifi district, which is outside of the coastal city of Mombasa. The program taught area residents how to dig farms, harvest rainwater for irrigation and add manure and materials to help retain moisture for their plants. Local residents dug 40,000 special pits designed to maximize plant growth, and they are already beginning to see results from their sustainability efforts. 

 

Jamal Abdallah
Six years ago, Jamal learned that he was HIV positive. After facing the social stigma of the disease and spending weeks in the hospital, he began to receive food and medicine from the Kilifi District Hospital HIV/AIDS clinic. WFP gives him a monthly ration of food for his entire household, and the clinic provides his medications.

The combination treatment has dramatically improved his health. When Jamal first fell ill, he weighed just over 100 pounds. Standing at 6 feet tall, he now weighs over 140 pounds. He says that he has regained his strength and his ability to work, and that he has found his purpose in life. Today Jamal offers his support to others with HIV/AIDS as the head of his community Red Ribbon group. Through this group, he encourages others to be tested, talks to families about living with someone who is HIV positive and hopes to defeat the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.