As millions of Americans come together to celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s worth remembering that millions of children around the world give thanks with every meal.
WFP works to ensure that kids like these Niger school children get the food they need to learn and grow up healthy. You can find out how to help at wfp.org.
At Least 1 Million Zimbabweans Facing Hunger —AP
The U.N. World Food Program said Monday that families are already skipping meals during the “lean season” expected to end with the March harvest. It says the worst affected areas are in the driest parts of Zimbabwe and are expected to again face poor harvests.
Médecins sans Frontières Book Reveals Aid Agencies’ Ugly Compromises —The Guardian A controversial new book produced by one of the world’s best-known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, lifts the lid on the often deeply uncomfortable compromises aid organisations are forced to make while working in conflicts.
Seeds of Progress in Mali —The Guardian
Before the construction of their communal warehouse, the seed producers of Falema village would travel miles to sell their goods. It is a scenario that has kept many smallholder farmers in Mali locked in poverty.
The Key Ingredients to Tackle Food Crisis —The Guardian
Increasing agricultural productivity in Africa and removing trade restrictions are our best hope for feeding the planet. A G20 agriculture ministers meeting in Paris in June agreed to resist the use of any restrictions adversely affecting efforts of the World Food Programme (WFP) to feed the hungry.
The Emergency the World Forgot —Newsweek
After this year’s floods—despite some level of response from local NGOs, young Pakistani activists, relief workers, and the U.N.—aid inflows remain dangerously inadequate and relief workers warn of an impending catastrophe due to unmet pledges and a potential looming breach in the relief-and-food supply line to victims in the difficult months ahead.
Hunger fears as Afghan snows approach — BBC
Time is running out for more than two-and-a-half million people in drought stricken areas of Afghanistan according to international aid agencies.
Somali Refugees Flee to Ethiopia to Escape Famine, Violence — PBS
Kenyan troops have been drawn into the civil war in Somalia between the government and al-Shabab militants as desperate refugees flee to Ethiopia to escape violence and famine.
Agriculture needs massive investment to avoid hunger, scientists warn — The Guardian
Billions more investment is needed in agriculture and food distribution systems around the world in the next few years, if widespread hunger is to be avoided, according to a group of leading scientists.
Myanmar: Deforestation threatens breadbasket — IRIN
Part of Myanmar’s breadbasket in the country’s centre is fast deteriorating and the area may face greater food insecurity without immediate action, local NGOs warn.
Bangladesh government goes shopping for farmland — The Guardian
Authorities in Bangladesh are looking abroad for land to grow food to meet the country’s increasing demand and to create jobs for Bangladeshi migrants.
On any given day, WFP has an average of 4,000 trucks delivering food across the globe. We don’t have super powers that help us get food to people in need in some of the most remote places on earth. We have lots of determined truck drivers.
Meet one of them. He just delivered school meals in Sinoe, Liberia on roads that looked a lot like this and is probably pretty exhausted. But without him, we couldn’t do our job.
Have you ever driven by a truck on the highway and wondered what it was carrying?
If you had been driving next to trucks like these on the highways of Central America, the answer would be food for people like the little girl in the picture below.
She’s from a town called El Zapote in El Salvador where thousands of people, including her parents, lost everything they had in a wave of flash floods. The little poncho she’s wearing is just a plastic bag with a hole punched through it.
In her hand is a packet of high-energy biscuits brought to her by the trucks in the picture above. There are more trucks on their way with more food for her and her family that will help to sustain them as they rebuild their lives.
Photos by WFP/ Alfredo Arriaza & Vladimir Rivera
This is what a sustainable hunger solution looks like.
It’s a before and after picture of what is now a rice paddy in Laos setup under a WFP “cash for work” programme. The scheme provided farmers in Oudamxay province with money to buy food while they worked to plant new rice paddies and vegetable gardens.
That took about two months of very hard labor which they would not have had time to perform without the money they received from WFP to feed their families.
Now, they have an added source of both income and food, which will continue to pay nutritional dividends in the years to come.
Copyright: WFP/Khamphay Onechaleunsou
This year we welcome a seven billionth person into the world knowing that there is one in seven chance that person will be born into hunger.
Nearly a billion people in the world go to bed hungry each night. Yet there are more than twice as many people online.
You are one of them. Just think what we could achieve if all two billion of us came together to take a stand against hunger. Join our movement to bring the 2 billion online together for the 1 billion hungry.
Malnutrition levels in the refugee camps of Dadaab, Kenya are still above emergency levels as families continue to pour across the border from famine-plagued Southern Somalia.
In the Dagahaley camp, where this woman and her children where photographed, some 38% of new arrivals are reported to be badly undernourished.
Photo by Lydia Wamala (@lydiawmala)
Remarkably, these are two photos of the same child. On the left, Sadak Hassan Abdi, 18-months-old and severely malnourished after his long journey to escape famine in Somalia. On the right, Sadak five weeks later, after receiving a special nutrition product called Plumpy’Sup from WFP.
You can read more about his story here.
We are the World Food Programme, the biggest humanitarian aid agency in the world. When we’re not saving lives in emergencies, we’re helping families get back on their feet. When we’re not serving meals in school, we’re shielding mothers and kids from malnutrition.
This is a blog from the front lines against hunger. Every post is a story of hope. Find out more at wfp.org.
The countries in the Horn of Africa are facing the worst drought the world...
Today! UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane are mobilizing their friends to take...
