Blog
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
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
 On Wednesday, we arrived at our first school meals program in an urban environment. One of the goals of this trip was to observe several different school meals programs and determine the main differences between the rural and urban feeding programs. Pulling into the school, I noticed several children waiting to greet us. The smile on a child’s face as they see a WFP truck pull up is indescribable.
Mukindani Primary School currently has 1,553 students, of which 100 of them are in preschool. These children come from a radius that encompasses five surrounding slums. Most students have to walk as many as 5 kilometers each way every day to reach the school. The school consists of only 20 classrooms for all of the students. One of the main reasons that children attend school is because they can be assured that they will receive a hot meal; often their only meal of the day. The World Food Program works with an organization called Feed the Children. The job of this organization is to visit with schools that house the most vulnerable children, monitor the attendance of these schools and work so that children are being fed and attending school regularly. Many of the children were talking and laughing as we got out of the vehicles. We were greeted by the head teacher and invited into the main office. The office was dark and crowded. We began discussing the problems that are faced at Mukindani. The school is currently on a short-term school meals program that is used only in emergency situations. The program was implemented at this school because the droughts made it impossible for the children to receive food elsewhere. Kenya has experienced a drought that has compromised the last four harvest cycles. With the recent rains, the country may now begin to develop new harvests for food in the near future. It is for this reason that the program will cut funding and assistance to this school within the month of November.  As we finished the meeting, we were asked to join the students for a special presentation in the courtyard. The mass of students began swaying and singing a wonderful song of welcome. When they finished, Friends of WFP was able to engage the children in discussion and activity. I began taking pictures of the children around me. I noticed that the children were absolutely fascinated with the sight of their own picture. Many of these children had never seen themselves before.
I began speaking with a young girl about her life in the Mombasa slums. Her name was Caroline and she was nine years old. She has one younger brother but he is too young to attend school with her. Caroline arrives at school at 6:30am and does not return home until 6:45pm. During the day she learns many different subjects including English, math, science and art. She informed me that the school meals program has helped her immensely. She is now able to concentrate and study hard so that she may one day rise above poverty and achieve success. Touring the kitchen was one of the harder things to do. It was almost barren with a large silver caldron for mixing the supplemental food. I asked how many bags of food it took to feed all of the children at the school for one day and I was told that it takes four bags to properly serve the children. Unfortunately, with the closing of the program in the near future, the administration has had to cut down on the amount of food that can be served. The new ration is now three bags for all 1500+ students. This decision was made to try and stretch the food out as long as possible. Right before we left the slums, the children came into the courtyard to wish us well. There was such a difference in the urban schools verses the rural school programs. In the rural areas, the children are well behaved and disciplined rather than those in the urban environment. The attendance rate in rural schools is very high and the children are healthy and happy. In the 1980’s, the rural schools had implemented the program because the families could not easily find employment. However, the children in the slums have only had the program temporarily and parents of the students are expected to find employment that will allow them to support their family. Also, children in the urban environments tend to me more rowdy and less disciplined. After speaking with the head teacher, I was informed that since the program began at Mukindani, the attendance rates have increased and the children have become more focused in class. School meals programs are highly effective ways to increase a child’s attendance, help them focus and ensure that they are being properly fed and cared for. The children at this primary school made me realize the impact that the school meals program can have on a child’s life. Jennifer Armit
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
 On Tuesday, we visited a food distribution center in MWAHERA, where women from the surrounding area were picking up food provided by the World Food Program. Samuel Mwangi is the field coordinator for this distribution and he explained the process to me. Prior to distribution, there is a pre-meeting with all the beneficiaries. Then, the process of distribution the food begins and it takes about an hour. The food was delivered that morning and has already been set into piles. The food is distributed to the women of the community to ensure that it will get home to feed the family and all the children of the family. The women are then put in groups of 10 and within these groups, they distribute the food by opening the WFP bags and moving the food into their own containers to take home. Each beneficiary also has a card and a thumbprint which are used for identification.
Seeing the process firsthand was an experience I will not soon forget. It was extremely organized and went very smoothly. Considering the amount of need in this area due to the drought which has caused crop failure for several seasons now, I was expecting quite a different scene of the arrival of all the food. That was not the case at all. After leaving this particular distribution center, we passed two others. The entire area was receiving food that day. Later in the day, we also saw all the women walking home carrying the bags and walking as much as two hours each way to get home from the distribution center.
Rachel Hofer
Day 3: Visit to the Kibera Slums, Nairobi
Today we visited a school located in the slums of Nairobi. Kibera, as the slums are called, is a community with its own police station and more than 200 schools. Over 1 million people live within a 1.5 square mile radius. A large percentage of its inhabitants are children (probably more than half, as many are orphans).
Walking through Kibera is fascinating. Lively music blares from speakers hidden in little huts. Stalls offer all sorts of items for sale. Clothes and plastic sandals, fruits and vegetables and tasty little snacks (fried potatoes and sugarcane) can be purchased within the walls of these slums. Chickens, cats and dogs roam freely. It is chaotic, but Kibera is vibrant and in a strange way is welcoming to its visitors.
It had rained heavily the night before our visit. The path was muddy and slippery. It was quite a challenge to walk around. Flying toilet bags (the name says it all) were scattered everywhere. Corrugated tin roofs were our only support. Luckily, none of us slipped or fell in that muddy mess. Four armed guards escorted us wherever we ventured.
After a visit to an HIV/AIDS Center, we made our way to Stara Resource Center and School. Stara has over 530 students, and 53 percent of them are females. 70 percent of the children are orphans, 15 percent have only one parent and the remainder are neglected. Nearly 330 of the children have been screened, and 10 percent of them have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. The school has 13 teachers and two social workers.
The Center started in 1998 as a woman's cooperative and started with six children looking for food. In 2004, the World Food Program implemented its school meals program and enrollment rocketed from 200 to its current number. By providing a meal for children (consisting of maize and pulses cooked in palm oil), attendance and school performance increased significantly. Many of these children have no other source of food and the school meal is the only thing they will eat all day. As you can imagine, food is a strong incentive for the children to attend school.
The Center tries to involve parents, particularly the mothers. They are encouraged to make crafts (such as beaded necklaces) and sell them to visitors. All proceeds are invested back into the school.
Staff from the World Food Program (which provides the food) and Feed the Children (which implements the school meals program) monitors the distribution of food and conducts monthly inspections to ensure that standards are being met.
The benefits of the school meals program are evident. Children attend the school so they can eat. With a full belly, they can concentrate better on their schoolwork. By staying in school, the children stay off the streets and out of trouble.
It’s hard for us back home to fully understand how important the school meals program is to the school and to these children. Visiting Stara School has allowed me to witness it firsthand. I only wish more people could see it as well. Only then would they realize how truly blessed we are because we don't have to worry about our next meal.
After this trip, I won't complain about my weight again! I consider myself lucky to have that extra meat on my bones.
-Alexa
Day 5 of this trip took place in the Khalifi District Hospital where they have a Comprehensive Care Center Clinic for Women and Children with HIV/AIDS. WFP is involved in food assistance programs for this group because adequate nutrition is especially important for patients who are taking Antiretroviral (ARV) medications. In addition to the low resistance these patients have to even common infections, the absorption of the medications is affected by adequate food. Patients are often weak, have low energy levels and the men and women are unable to work. There is no source of food without this assistance.
The Khalifi program for women and children sees patients in the clinic. About 100 patients register each day for a nutritional status assessment. This includes measuring height, weight, and arm circumference, followed by a nutritional prescription of food needs and obtaining a necessary supply of medicine. There are a total of about 5500 patients registered with the clinic who receive special food assistance. On this visit, I spent a considerable amount of time with the staff member in charge of the nutritional prescriptions, who dealt with individual clients as he assessed each of their needs. I was able to interact on a more personal basis with the clients and got to know their personal stories. More will be written on these personal accounts when I have more time to organize my thoughts and develop these stories.
Lillian Pardo
Today we went to visit WFP programs located in the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa with over 1 million people living in only 1.5 square miles. The Kibera slums began after World War II when the South Sudanese who were fighting for the British settled there. The settlement gradually turned into a slum as it grew and became populated by many who were displaced after land disputes. There is also a high percentage of women settled in Kibera due to the lack of protection laws for women. For example, when a husband dies, a woman loses their land and if she is not taken in by her husband’s family, she is left with nothing. Kibera has become a very dangerous place in recent years especially after the 2008 election when there was a huge increase in riots between tribes in Kibera. Even just a few days ago, there was a violent clash between two tribes. People were killed and homes were burned to the ground. Given the security issues, our group was escorted to the slum by four armed guards and undercover UN security. Our visit included the Lea Toto HIV Care Center, a WFP beneficiary’s home and a WFP school meals program. The Lea Toto HIV Center serves orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) who are HIV positive. Lea Toto was established in 1998 initially as a mobile outreach initiative whose goal was to reach out to HIV-positive children. In 1999, Lea Toto became a full fledged community home-based care program which includes HIV care for OVCs and food and nutritional support provided by WFP for the patient and their family. The OVCs receive antiretroviral (ARV) medication which is very toxic, especially to the body of a weak child. Food and nutritional support are needed for the ARVs to work effectively. We also visited the home of a WFP beneficiary living in the slum. To reach the home, it was necessary to navigate through the rows of homes via muddy pathways - there are no roads in Kibera. The homes were made from a combination of mud and small branches and the rooftops were made from random pieces of tin. It had recently rained which made the paths even more difficult to maneuver. We slipped and squashed through inches of mud and feces. The slum has a combination of open sewers and “flying toilets” (plastic bags used for waste then thrown in the paths or on rooftops). The home of the WFP beneficiary was approximately 10’ by 10’ (one of the larger homes) and included one small bed, a small cupboard, a few cooking utensils and stools. Ten family members live in this space. Ruth, the 31-year-old mother of a WFP beneficiary, lives with her seven-year-old daughter (a Lea Toto patient), her sister, mother and various extended family members. The husbands have all died, most likely from HIV/AIDS. Ruth is also HIV-positive and receives ARVs at a nearby clinic. She washes clothes for a meager $1/day, yet is unable to work when it is cold due to her illness. Ruth expressed her gratitude for the food and nutrition supplements given to her family from WFP. Her daughter is strong and responding well to the ARV treatment. Next, we visited a WFP school meals program at Stara Primary School, also in Kibera. The school meals program began at Stara in 2004. There are only 13 teachers for 538 students. Seventy percent of the students are full orphans (both parents have died) and many of the others have only one parent. The school has seen an increase in school enrollment and attendance since the school meals program began. For most of the children, this is the only meal they eat each day. The teachers noticed an increase in attention and academic achievement after the school meals program began. The programs we visited today demonstrated the challenges faced by the poor in Kenya. Although these programs are improving the lives of many, there is still much work to be done. Holly Schade
Friends of the World Food Program, Princeton Committee
 In the last two weeks, the Northern San Fernando Valley WFP Committee of California has had two congressional meetings to discuss the Roadmap Act and the Global Food Security Act. Our first meeting was with Congressman Brad Sherman’s Chief of Staff, Bradford Cheney, and the second was with Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Los Angeles Field Representative, Molly O’Brien (seen right). Although these meetings were slightly intimidating at first, we found these experiences to be extremely powerful and rewarding (and maybe even a little fun, too…). Our first meeting with the Congressman’s office was pretty intense - we were glad that we had done some good research (the Friends of WFP's 'Current Legislation' page lays things out quite nicely), prepared an outline and assigned discussion points among ourselves. We also did some of our own research on our Congressman and Senator’s records on similar issues and were sure to provide a list of the current co-sponsors and the status of each piece of legislation. This information proved to be very valuable! All of this prep work definitely helped us hit the key points and keep things moving.
 During our second meeting, we felt a lot more confident. While our first meeting lasted only 10 minutes, we spent over half an hour at the Senator’s office getting into the details of both pieces of legislation. We found both offices to be extremely receptive and overwhelmingly nice and accommodating. Both offices were going to pass the information we gave them on to their legislative analysts before any decisions could be made, but they were both happy to have constituents informing them on pieces of information that mattered to them. In fact, we, as a group, felt really powerful. We are a relatively new and small committee (there are only three of us), but we felt like in our small numbers we were able to bring to light some important issues and pieces of legislation that our representatives may not have known about otherwise. And the fact that we may have some impact down the road on the possible co-sponsorship of these acts is a pretty amazing feeling!
-Jessica Mullan (WFP Committee of the Northern San Fernando Valley)
-- If any other committees are going to be participating in similar events, we’d be happy to send over our outlines and other pieces of research that we found to be useful - we spent quite a bit of time mulling over the details of these pieces of legislation. Feel free to contact us! (wfp.nsfvalley@friendsofwfp.org) --
 About 1 billion people around the world are forced to survive on $1 a day. For those of us who follow the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and its hunger relief efforts in the news, we see this staggering figure time and time again. But how often do we stop to think about what it really means?
Richard Lee, WFP spokesperson for southern Africa, helps us conceptualize the limitations of such a tiny budget by taking us on a tour of a country market in Blantyre, Malawi with his “On The Road” video series. In Malawi, the average daily wage is only $1, so the struggle that Lee faces at the market is shared by many in the landlocked country. Thirty-five percent of the Malawi population suffers from undernourishment. Click here to find out what Lee discovers and to learn about what you can do to help end hunger in Malawi. -Brooke Barron
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
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