World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

After being displaced by conflict, the women of Manga have finally found a way to support their families. Together with other women from their community, they are helping rebuild their families' lives and re-establishing their own livelihoods.

A communal garden project is helping returnee families rebuild their homes and re-establish their livelihoods. WFP Philippines assisted the families by providing them with food as incentive for attending the project's training sessions. 

The Liguasan Marsh is a 288,000- hectare marshland which plays a vital role in maintaining the ecological balance of the Central Mindanao region in the southern Philippines. The communities surrounding the marsh, together with their local government, has embarked on a reforestation project to protect and conserve the biodiversity of the marsh -- and WFP was there to support them.  

The effects of malnutrition during the first critical 1,000 days of a child’s life (starting from conception) can actually result in irreversible damage to a child’s physical and mental development. This is why WFP’s nutrition program -- implemented with various government and non-government partners -- is particularly targeted towards young children and breastfeeding mothers.

To celebrate Women’s Month, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently joined a mangrove planting activity that connected women with the critical issue of addressing climate change and food security in their community.

Lolita Hernando is one of the women in Lanao del Norte, one of the conflict-affected provinces in Mindanao. Her family has benefited from WFP assistance through a School Feeding Programme in partnership with the Department of Education and a livelihood project in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. She is 44 years old and has 7 children. She was displaced in 2008 during an upsurge in conflict, but has returned to her original home. We followed her for a day to see what has been keeping her busy lately!

As part of its humanitarian mandate,  the UN World Food Programme stands ready to complement and support relief and early recovery efforts of the Government of the Philippines if requested and based on assessed needs.  Most recently, WFP has been working with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to assist more than 250,000 people who have been affected by Tropical Storm Washi (locally called 'Sendong') that struck northern Mindanao in mid-December 2011. What many people may not know is that WFP is also working very hard to build up national and local level capacities to better prepare for natural disasters.

Ayeene Robles has been a field monitor for WFP in the Philippines since 2009. In a country regularly hit by devastating natural disasters, this can be a challenging job, including travelling for weeks in areas completely submerged in floods and cut-off from the outside world.

In support of government relief efforts, WFP is providing urgently needed food, supplies and logistics support to boost the Philippine government’s emergency response to help thousands of people whose lives have been devastated by Tropical Storm Washi, which battered Northern Mindanao over the weekend.

WFP in the Philippines is helping formerly displaced fishermen increase their catch.  A major upsurge in conflict in Central Mindanao in 2008 displaced over 700,000 people – the world’s largest population displacement recorded that year.  Since then, WFP has been working the with the government of the Philippines to help displaced communities rebuild their lives after returning home.