World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Following the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Two in October, WFP was requested to assist the flood-affected populations of Magway Division in central Myanmar. Within days of the storm making landfall, WFP had launched an emergency response and was assisting 30,000 people with a mixed food basket of rice, pulses, oil and salt.

Food-For-Work projects are an integral part of WFP Myanmar’s operation. The idea is simple  - WFP pays workers with food to build infrastructure which contributes to a hunger-free future for their communities. In a disaster-prone country like Myanmar, building and repairing flood-prevention mechanisms is vital to ensuring communities are as well protected as possible.

In Myanmar, the prevalence of underweight and stunting among children under five is around 33 percent. WFP is seeking to address this through its operation, Improving the Food Security, Nutrition Status and Livelihoods of Vulnerable Populations. One element of the project is a Mother and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) programme which aims to alleviate some of the underlying causes of chronic malnutrition and low birth weight.

WFP assists vulnerable families throughout Myanmar through its Food-For-Training activities. The projects, designed to support and re-establish livelihoods, have knock-on benefits not just for those trained but also for their families and the wider community.

Since she started receiving WFP rations through WFP’s Food For Education programme, Yex attends school full time and dreams of becoming a nurse.

Cyclone Giri made landfall in Rakhine State on 22 October. In the aftermath of the disaster WFP and its partners distributed nearly 8,000mt to 200,000 affected people. WFP is now targeting over 92,000 people through Food For Work to rebuild embankments, ponds and roads.

Yan Jen is 11 years old and lives with her family in  Motai village in Shan State. Her parents are poor farmers who own a few acres of land and grow rice but not enough for the whole family to get through the lean season.

Every day of her life, Lu Nan walked for four hours to collect water for her family from the river. Sometimes her children came too, but they could only carry 20 litres on each trip as the path was difficult and Lu Nan had only one container.
 

 Li Wei Lin, a mother of five children from Par Wai Village in Kokang, told WFP that according to the Kokang tradition, women always come second after men. They are not allowed to talk in public places, nor travel out of the village.

A cutting-edge new software package is helping rapid response teams be ready when disaster strikes. Known as DeMist, the programme simulates a wide range of emergencies, pitting aid workers in the same situations they face while responding to real-life crises.