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
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