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Yesterday, heavy rains from the tail-end of Hurricane Ida caused devastating damage to the Central
American nation of El Salvador. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) now estimates that roughly 10,000 people will need emergency food assistance over the coming days.
The Salvadoran government has declared a state of emergency in five of the country's most affected departments. Because the storm occurred during the harvest season, many families have lost their entire supply of crops to floods and mudslides. Damages to roads and bridges have made many communities inaccessible by land, so WFP is partnering with the government to make a situation assessment by helicopter.
"The intensity of the rainfall over the last 24 hours surpassed that of Hurricane Mitch 11 years ago," said Dorte Ellehammer, WFP Representative in El Salvador. "Severe flooding washed away entire harvests, homes and livelihoods. This disaster has compromised the food security of thousands of people."
As of now, 144 people are reported dead, but another 60 are missing and more than 12,000 are homeless.
Luckily, WFP is well positioned to provide emergency food assistance in the affected areas because it has food supplies stored at its Emergency Preparedness and Response center in San Salvador. The center has enough food to feed about 70,000 people for up to four days - about 90 tons. There is also another 1,000 tons of food available in the country.
-Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
The ports of Mombasa, Kenya are among the most strategic in the world for WFP. Ships arrive, bearing food for WFP programs in Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
WFP rents warehouses, patrolled by armed security to prevent theivery, which are big as a football field, 3-4 stories high. One warehouse room holds enough food to feed more than two million people.
Margot Hoerrner
Vice President of Outreach
Friends of the World Food Program
WFP Committee Trip to the Field, Kenya - November, 2009
WFP Committee - Trip to the Field.
Kenya, November 2009.
-Margot Hoerrner
Vice President of Outreach
Friends of the World Food Program
 About a month ago, Tropical Storm Ketsana hit the Philippines with the heaviest rainfall in a single day in the country’s history. This left 420 people dead and hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of food assistance. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was one of the first organizations on the ground helping the Filipino people. Please read my blog post from a month ago to learn more.
Since my first post about the first tropical storm, the Philippines has suffered a month of heavy rainfall, including a typhoon that hit last week. According to the World Health Organization, about 1.5 million people are living in dangerous conditions due to floods. WFP is transporting food and other supplies to the areas of Benguet and Wallace in the north-central Luzon area and is providing 5,000 tons of rice to 960,000 people.
On a visit to the Philippines last week, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said, "The storms and torrential rains...have left the people of the Philippines facing one of the greatest challenges in memory."
As the Philippines suffers from some of the worst rainfall in its history, WFP is on the ground helping those in desperate need and getting ready to help the Filipino government move forward after these devastating natural disasters.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
 Tomorrow, United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran will travel to the Philippines for a three-day tour of some of the country's worst-affected areas with President Gloria Arroyo and WFP National Ambassador KC Concepcion. Last month, heavy storms caused severe flooding on the southern island of Luzon and submerged some 80 percent of the capital city of Manila.
In addition to seeing how food assistance is being provided to Filipinos who were forced to flee their homes due to flooding, Sheeran will meet with government officials, WFP staff and representatives from non-governmental organizations that have played a part in the relief efforts. WFP is currently supporting government relief operations in the area.
Sheeran's visit occurs at a time when other areas of the Philippines are rushing to ready themselves for even more flooding. Typhoon Lupit is expected to hit the northern Philippines on October 22, and heavy rains may reach land the day before. The country's National Disaster Coordinating Council said that nearly 100 tons of food have already been sent to areas where Lupit may cause the most damage.
-Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has partnered with both the public and private sectors to bring relief to those affected by last week's devastating earthquake in Indonesia.
 In coordination with the Indonesian government and private sector partners such as Agility, Unilever and Bank International Indonesia, WFP is helping "to ensure the nutritional status of people does not deteriorate," according to WFP Country Representative Coco Ushiyama. Two days ago, WFP began distributing nutritionally fortified biscuits to children under 5 and pregnant and nursing women - the most vulnerable groups after a major natural disaster.
More than 700 people have been confirmed dead since the 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit last month, and Indonesian officials say the number may actually be higher.
One of the biggest challenges after a natural disaster destroys vital infrastructure is finding a way to deliver assistance to those in need. Heavy rains and damaged roads have made it difficult to transport food to remote areas that may now only be accessible by foot or by helicopter. In addition to continued work with the Indonesian government, WFP will provide four large forklifts to help move rubble and clear roads.
WFP's disaster relief assistance comes in addition to the agency's everyday work in Indonesia. WFP reaches about 845,000 hungry people in Indonesia each year with programs such as mother-and-child health and nutrition, school meals and assistance to patients with tuberculosis.
-Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
This past weekend, a deadly tropical storm hit the Philippines resulting in massive floods. The southern island of Luzon and the metropolitan area of Manila were hit the hardest. About 80 percent of Manila was submerged in water while about 480,000 people were affected by this record rainfall, and 145,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is working to distribute food rations to over 180,000 people affected by the flooding. Many of the region's assets were destroyed, and the Associated Press reports that at least 140 people have died.
“WFP is working with authorities and mobilizing assistance to help thousands of Filipinos whose lives have been devastated after Saturday’s deadly tropical storm,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.
“We are deeply saddened by the magnitude of the human suffering caused by this natural calamity and we assure the Philippines Government and its people of our support for a swift and coordinated recovery effort,” said Stephen Anderson, WFP’s Country Representative in the Philippines.
Two new tropical storms are currently forming east of the Philippines and there is the potential that they may hit sometime within the next week. WFP is already providing assistance and is ready to help the Filipino people as they experience these historic storms.
Help support WFP’s relief effort in the Philippines. Donate now.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
Guatemala has the fourth largest chronic undernutrition rate in the world, and the worst in Latin America and the Caribbean. Now Guatemala is facing the worst drought it has seen in 30 years. The drought is affecting 2.5 million people in the country due to a severe decrease in agricultural production. WFP says that the people of Guatemala are facing four particular factors that are leading to an increase in the number of hungry poor: high food prices, the global financial crisis, an increase in unemployment and a recurrence of poor crops.
WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella said:
"Nearly 50 percent of children under five years old in Guatemala suffer from chronic under-nutrition, which can cause stunting or severe weight loss. WFP is expecting that the worst-hit families will be about 54,000 families in Guatemala, although the government is estimating the number could be closer to 300,000."
Currently, WFP is distributing food to more than 20,000 families affected by the drought. WFP is also continuing to provide VitaCereal – a highly nutritious blend of maize, soy and micronutrients – to 100,000 children under the age of 5 and 50,000 pregnant and nursing women.
As mentioned in the previous blog post, WFP is facing a budget shortfall and if it is unable to raise $7 million to support this program for the next 12 months, it will be cut at the end of October.
Donate now to help WFP continue its life-saving operations in Guatemala.
Read More.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
On September 1, unusually severe rains began falling in
Burkina Faso. Since then, torrential flooding
has killed over 150 people living in 11 countries on Africa’s western coast, and destroyed the homes and
businesses of thousands more.
 Fortunately, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is
distributing food to flood victims in hard-hit countries like Burkina Faso,
Mauritania and Niger. WFP plans to provide food assistance to
125,000 people in Burkina Faso’s capital city, Ougadougou, as well as an
additional 50,000 in Mauritania and Niger.
“People’s lives have been turned upside-down overnight and
WFP is moving as swiftly as possible to minimize the impact,” said Josette
Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP. “It
is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods like these as
their few remaining assets have been swept away, leaving them hungry and
destitute.”
Indeed, much of the damage has been to poor communities,
where many homes were built without official approval and constructed with
shoddy materials. Many of the flooded houses in Ougadougou were
made only of clay.
Humanitarian aid agencies also worry that an outbreak of
diseases such as malaria and cholera may soon occur. According to officials, the thousands of
people who have fled their homes due to flooding are now living in schools and
empty buildings, where sanitation is a major issue.
-Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
Since 2004, more than 150,000 Yemenis have been affected by ongoing fighting between rebel groups and the Yemeni government. But a recent surge of violence has worsened the situation for many, driving roughly 35,000 people from their homes in the last two weeks.
The fighting is centered around Sa'ada, a remote, inaccessible city. Humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) face great difficulties in delivering assistance to Sa'ada because its roads are blocked and there is no access to the area by air. As of August 25, most UN staff had been removed from the city due to security concerns, and UN agencies are focusing on distributing aid to people in areas surrounding Sa'ada.
Sa'ada itself has been without water and electricity for two weeks. The city also faces a fuel shortage, and it has become increasingly difficult and dangerous for people to reach markets to buy food. According to Voice of America, "UN aid agencies describe a chaotic scene of misery and desperation."
Last week, WFP began distributing one-month supplies of cereals, vegetable oil, salt and sugar to 10,000 people in Yemen, as well as high-energy biscuits and dates to another 7,000. The agency is also airlifting food to the capital city of San'a, but the trucks required to deliver the food to conflict areas are often held up by poor road conditions, insecurity and checkpoints.
Distressingly, a major budget shortfall means WFP may soon have to suspend its life-saving food assistance programs in Yemen. According to a WFP news release, the agency only has enough food in Sa'ada to feed the city's 150,000 recipients for two more weeks. WFP programs in Yemen are facing a shortfall of $20 million in 2009 - that's more than one-third of the yearly budget. Without additional funding, over 1 million Yemenis may lose their food assistance by November.
- Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
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