World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Dungkar Drupka runs WFP’s food assistance operations in the south Asian nation of Bhutan. In this article he describes his impoverished childhood in a mountain village and his first experiences of school. He also talks about a conversation he had with a school boy he met many years later, when visiting a remote school as WFP representative.

WFP supports the Royal Government of Bhutan in its policy of improving access to education by providing daily meals to school children particularly to those from poor and food insecure families in remote areas. This activity supports the nationwide trends of increased enrolment and attendance rates and reduced dropout rates. The provision for meals also improves the short term nutritional status of school going children and thus supports their concentration and cognitive capacities.
 

WFP is watching international food prices closely, as continued rises could increase pressure on the hungry poor and at the same time raise the cost of providing food assistance. A new report warns that food prices could climb higher in 2011, especially if harvests are poor.

WFP today welcomed a US$2 million donation from the United States to provide essential food aid to more than 108,000 Bhutanese refugees who have been in camps in eastern Nepal for the last 16 years.

WFP has welcomed a €1.5 million donation to its Bhutanese refugee operation in Nepal from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO).