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Earlier this afternoon here at Friends of the World Food
Program (Friends of WFP), I was able to participate in a United Nations World
Food Program (WFP) Behind the Scenes: Live from Kenya conference call. While we
have all read about hunger in the news and have formed vague ideas about global
hunger issues, two Friends of WFP colleagues and six WFP Committee volunteers have
encountered, firsthand, the serious problems that face over 1 billion people in
the world today.
The call began with staggering statistics: WFP is currently
trying to reach around 4 million people affected by the drought in Kenya; over
42 percent of Kenya’s population lives on less than $1 per day; the Somali
refugee population increases by approximately 6,000 people per month; in one
HIV/AIDS clinic the group visited, there are 7,000 patients, with an
approximated 5 percent increase per year. The numbers are enormous. Yet what
does this all actually look like?
Our friends in the field were able to help paint the
sobering picture in our minds. They visited WFP School Meals programs and saw
how necessary the meals provided by the schools are to the children who receive
them. For many of these children, a school meal is the only meal they receive
each day. While this is a very sad realization, that one meal has helped
improve the children’s qualities of life. It also goes a long way in promoting
education. When meals are guaranteed, parents have more of an incentive to send
their children to school instead of keeping them at home to work. This is
especially true for girls. As we heard from our representatives in the field,
this realization is bittersweet. 
While the call set a serious tone, it was not without its
breakthrough moments. Children at one of the schools the group visited had set
up their own inventive system to wash their hands before meals because the
school could not afford running water. In another area, a water pan project was
created as part of a community initiative. Women from nearby villages dug the
pan to capture rain water. In exchange for their labor, WFP provides these
women with food. This is known as WFP’s Food for Work/Food for Training Program.The
water can now be used for basic daily needs in a time where drought is a main
concern. Our representatives were enthusiastic about the promise that these
projects show for the future.
On the other side of the call, sitting around the conference
room table, each employee of Friends of WFP had a serious look on their face.
The wheels were churning about what the next step might be for us and how we
could do more than what we’re doing right now. It is the real experiences of
our colleagues and volunteers that help fuel the efforts of these programs. It
is the stories they will bring home to share that will empower more people to
take the initiative for change and to become passionate about the issues raised
by global hunger. For me, the next step was writing this post to organize my
thoughts and to encourage people to join in the movement.
To learn even more about the trip to Kenya,
please read the blog posts that precede mine. They are full of amazing stories
that help bring the idea of world hunger closer to home with firsthand accounts
and conversations with WFP recipients. They are truly humbling. - Sara Thomson
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
Having only one week to spend in Kenya, Friends of WFP needed to be able to fit several program visits into a couple of days. We flew from Nairobi to Mombasa on Monday afternoon and remained in Mombasa visiting programs until Wednesday evening. When we arrived in Mombasa, we were greeted by David Kamau, Head of the WFP Satellite Office for Mombasa. David was extremely informative and also happened to be one of the nicest men I have ever met. I learned that David would be our guide through several programs in the area. On Tuesday morning, a WFP convoy picked us up at our hotel and we began our journey into the rural area near Kilifi. David informed us that we would be visiting a couple of Food for Asset programs. Food for Assets is a type of food assistance program that helps contribute to sustainable development. At this program, WFP worked in conjunction with World Vision, an international nonprofit organization that focuses on community assets that enhance food security. The areas of focus for the afternoon included a water pan (reservoir) and a community farm project, both of which implemented a rainwater harvesting technique.  The water pan took five months to construct and is three meters deep. Around the pan, a fence was built to keep livestock from drinking the water. The women in villages from as far as five kilometers away spent many hours constructing the water pan. In return, they received food for their contribution to the sustainability of the population in the area. The water could be used for cooking, drinking (if boiled) and for irrigation.
Later that afternoon, we visited a farm in the Ndugumnani community. WFP and World Vision had to receive the consent of the community before beginning to plant. The farm was developed in June of 2009 and will be harvested in 90 days. This harvest will target 323 households in the surrounding area. The community farm utilizes rainwater that is irrigated into pits. The shape of the pit is conducive to rainwater collection. Each person working on the program is responsible for five or six pits. Ultimately, the goal is to have over 40,000 pits. The workers are only allowed to work for 2-3 hours at most. This allows the community to maintain other responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning and raising their children. The farm takes up 18 acres and when harvested, will produce upwards of 80 metric tons of food. After seeing these programs in action, I am better able to understand the objectives of sustainability. This program is extremely important to the efforts of WFP. Not only does WFP work to make sure that people are taken care of in emergency situations, but it also recognizes the fact that if the goal of ending global hunger is to be successful, the populations facing food security issues must be able to sustain themselves. -Jennifer Armit
The Millennium Villages project and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) have recently announced that they will join forces to alleviate hunger and poverty in Africa. Their plan is to create “undernourishment-free zones” in the 80 Millennium Villages that span 10 different countries. They will focus on important measures such as school meal coverage, health education and assistance for smallholder farmers in increasing both income and productivity. 
WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran states, “We must act now to build the partnerships and take the comprehensive steps necessary to win this fight. No one organization can do it alone, and we will leverage a growing collaboration with the Millennium Villages project to deliver powerful solutions to malnutrition.” The Millennium Villages project was formed as a response to the findings of the UN Millennium Project. It is led by the Earth Institute, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Program. Focusing on community development and self-empowerment to create a sustainable way of ending poverty, the Millennium Villages project combined with WFP techniques will have a positive impact on food security.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, adds, “The Millennium Villages will carry out the exciting interventions pioneered by WFP, and demonstrate that hunger and under-nutrition can be cut decisively through proven measures in agriculture, school meals, nutritional supplementation, food-for-work programs to build infrastructure, and other powerful WFP tools.”
The global economic crisis has made hunger an enormous concern worldwide, but WFP and the Millennium Villages project are rising to the challenge with a united effort. Read more about the Millennium Villages project. Read more about the partnership on WFP’s website.
-Sara Thomson
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
Reporting on its involvement with an innovative project called “Food for Trees” in Afghanistan, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) highlights the vital role that sustainable development programs play in countries like Afghanistan, where various WFP efforts reach 3.7 million people every year. The list of threats to food security in Afghanistan is long: in addition to ongoing political unrest and market instability, widespread environmental degradation further exacerbates the struggle to grow and distribute food locally. These environmental problems range from soil erosion to the ongoing drought, which has been called the worst in a decade.  With the support of WFP, however, the women of Dara Azhdar, a small Afghan community of refugees, have taken action into their own hands to combat the environmental problems in their area. Their solution? “For the sake of our health, the environment, providing shade and as measures against soil erosion, we needed to plant trees,” explains Zainab Rezayee.
After hearing about the Food for Trees project, which WFP promotes with the support of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, a group of local women decided that they could not afford to wait for the men of their community to act. They began planting trees in March 2009. Now more than 2,500 saplings line the streets of Dara Azhdar. In exchange for tending to the trees, WFP provides the women with food. Zainab is proud of what the trees represent in her refugee community, where the shade of a tree offers welcome relief from the temperatures that regularly climb well above 100˚F. “The women here are proud to have set an example by showing what can be achieved with a little grit and determination, and with the added incentive of food,” she says. Learn more about WFP’s role in Afghanistan. -Brooke Barron
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
Sudan, one of Africa's poorest and most conflict-ridden countries, is not lacking in serious challenges. Last month we blogged about the United Nations World Food Program (WFP)'s work to help the poor survive Sudan's "hunger season," and just yesterday a U.N. official warned that the nation has the potential to become a "humanitarian perfect storm" of problems. However, some of those living in central Sudan's North Kordofan region recently had reason to celebrate. The seasonal rains have finally arrived in the typically parched region, and as a result of WFP's Food for Work program, residents now have a reservoir to make the water easily available. The reservoir is called a haffir, and was hand-dug by the local community in exchange for nearly 450 tons of WFP food. Over 1,000 villagers contributed to the project, which is the largest of about 150 haffirs built in Sudan with WFP's Food for Work since 2002. The haffir is expected to provide for around 1,600 families in the surrounding areas. -Alli Bailey Communications Assistant Friends of WFP
 The next hurricane season that could affect Haiti is not until July, but the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the Haitian people are working together to help decrease the potential damage of this year’s hurricane season. To do this, WFP has teamed up with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to help stabilize the hillside.
Last year the streets of Gonaives were covered in mud after hurricane season. In an effort to avoid this same situation, Haitians themselves are building the infrastructure to support possible storms. In Gonaives, 260 Haitians are digging ditches, 300 are building barrages and 212 have helped to upgrade drainage systems on hillsides above Gonaives.
Those who work in this program receive $2 a day and 110 pounds of WFP rice for every 25 days they work; this is enough to feed a family of five. This program is considered “disaster mitigation,” rather than disaster prevention. The hope is to reduce the damage from storms as much as possible.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
 Nepal is suffering from the effects of a historic winter drought. A recent assessment released by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations determined that the drought placed more than 2 million people at a high risk of becoming food insecure.
This was one of the worst droughts in Nepal history, as it destroyed crops throughout the country and reduced wheat production by 14 percent and barley production by 17 percent. In some areas, crop yields dropped by more than 50 percent.
There are 75 districts in Nepal, and 40 of those districts are food deficient as a result of the drought, according to an estimate in the report. In response to the crisis, WFP plans to increase its food assistance in Nepal.
In the coming weeks, WFP plans to increase its reach from 1.5 to 2.2 million people in some of the hardest hit areas in Nepal. Specifically, WFP is looking to implement its Food for Work/Food for Training program to build up the assets of those communities hit the hardest; this program alone will help 700,000 people.
Richard Ragan, WFP representative in Nepal, said:
“We are already noticing that people have started to sell their assets, migrate for work and in some cases skip meals. This is very worrying. We are also concerned about the impact that road blockades and increased food and fuel prices are having on the mountain and hill markets. The supply of food stocks in local markets is insufficient and in some cases depleted.”
Most farmers in Nepal, who make up more than 60 percent of the population, depend on the winter crop production until the main crop is harvested in September or October.
WFP’s increase in food assistance in Nepal is intended to help the people of Nepal get through until September and October.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
 This weekend, we will celebrate Mother’s Day, and as we do, we can take a moment to think about the millions of women across the world who do what they can to provide for their children and families with the brightest future possible. For some women, assistance from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) enables them to eat well during pregnancy so that their babies might be healthy. Other families welcome WFP’s help for schools, as they provide healthy meals to children in school. WFP is working to nourish and empower women to end the cycle of poverty.
The valuable role of women was one of the topics that Josette Sheeran, executive director of WFP, recently wrote about in a blog post for The Huffington Post. She reflected on her two years as executive director and made it clear that hunger can be solved. She outlined what she has learned about hunger and said, “I've learned that hunger can be chronic, creating a negative downward cycle where malnourished mothers – often little more than children themselves – have malnourished babies who must struggle from their first breath to even survive.”
However, she added that throughout her travels – from Haiti to Myanmar to Ghana, “I also learned that no parent ever wants to accept food assistance unless they have run out of options. And they will take that option.” Many enter WFP’s Food for Work/Food for Training programs, which offer food as payment for individuals to receive job training or for work building infrastructure, such as schools and roads. WFP also offers its new Purchase for Progress program, which gives small-scale farmers access to reliable markets and the opportunity to sell their surplus at competitive prices, while helping WFP provide locally purchased food to those most in need.
WFP places particular emphasis on the role of women in their community in reducing poverty and hunger. According to WFP’s “Focus on women” webpage, 8 out of 10 people engaged in farming in Africa are women, and 6 out of 10 in Asia. Also, women are the sole breadwinners in one out of every three households around the world. In addition, WFP increasingly turns to women in distributing food assistance after an emergency.
WFP is featuring four stories about women benefiting from their humanitarian assistance. The stories tell of varied situations in which women have been aided by WFP programs.
One story tells how, after families lost everything in the hurricanes in Haiti, women have come to rely on feeding centers as the country rebuilds. Another story details the situation in Niger, where families worry about getting through the lean season. (The lean season is the precarious few months as household food stocks run out and the new harvest begins, essentially causing families to go with less food between harvests.) In Niger, WFP responds with a cereal bank for families to stock up during this seasonal lag in food.
These WFP success stories of helping women around the world are one small example of how WFP is teaming up with women to better their health, their children’s nutrition and their community wellbeing.
-Jessica Alatorre
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
 One year ago, on May 2, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with extreme force. The cyclone was devastating for those living in the Ayeycrwaddy Delta area, killing more than 140,000 people in the first 48 hours and leaving about 2.4 million people without homes. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was one of the first organizations on the ground to help those in most need. Over the past year, WFP teamed up with other international organizations and UN agencies to help distribute 70,000 tons of food to nearly one million people. WFP has also supported 76,000 people through Food for Work programs to help revive many of the farms that were destroyed during the disaster.
Despite all the work WFP has done this past year, the need for additional food assistance in Myanmar is still great. Large portions of farms in Ayeycrwaddy Delta still remained unplanted. Chris Kaye, WFP Representative in Yangon, Myanmar said: “WFP emergency rations can help families get through these tough times, but farmers will still need cash to purchase seed for planting, or fertilizer, or ploughs and livestock, all assets that were lost across the delta during the cyclone…Villagers who were once day laborers or who fished or shrimped need to get their jobs back before they can rebuild homes lost to Nargis.”
Mr. Kaye shows how the people of Myanmar still need food assistance one year later. As the year anniversary of the cyclone has come and gone, please consider donating to help WFP meet the challenges that face the people Myanmar in the coming year.
Listen to the NPR interview with Chris Kaye
Learn More
Donate Now!
-Brian J. Ward Outreach Associate Friends of WFP
The April thaw in my home state of Maine brings mud, which in turn attracts many trucks, jeeps and recreational vehicles to participate in an activity that we Mainers like to call “mudding.” Mudding is essentially the act of driving a vehicle off-road during mud season, with the goal of getting the vehicle, and sometimes the driver, as muddy as possible. Route Nacionale 3 in the Democratic Republic of Congo allows United Nations World Food Program (WFP) truck drivers and workers to go on a mudding adventure of their own – although not for recreation.
Located in the South Kivu province of the Congo, Route Nacionale 3 runs from the port city of Bukavu to the town of Hombo, for a total of about 87 miles in length. Built in the late 1960s, Route Nacionale 3 was paved during its early years, but little work has been done to it since then. What is left is a road that can be difficult to maneuver. Besides mud, Route Nacionale 3 contains hills, bumps and somewhat treacherous bridges.
This road once was used to transport palm oil and cassava, the two main export products of the South Kivu province; however, the poor quality of the road today makes travel arduous. According to WFP, “MONUC – the United Nations Organization Mission in DR Congo – is working on the road to improve its worst sections.”
WFP workers continue to “go mudding” on Route Nacionale 3 in order to distribute food to schoolchildren and others throughout the region. The mud road is a lifeline for thousands of people who rely on WFP for assistance.
Watch a video of what travel is like on Route Nacionale 3.
Read more about the WFP’s work in the Congo.
-Devinne Mack
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
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