World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Scattered pockets of locusts in southern Egypt and northern Sudan are a threat to agricultural land, warns the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Countries along the Red Sea should remain on “high alert and make every effort to find and treat all infestations”, it says. (..) Egypt is Africa's biggest wheat grower, with expected output of 8.5 million tons in 2012-2013, according to the International Grains Council. With around 3.6 million hectares of agricultural land in Egypt, there is a lot at stake in the case of a major locust invasion.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is feeding more than 7,000 Syrian refugees in Egypt through a newly-launched food voucher operation that is underway in other parts of the region. (..) Last week, more than 3,000 Syrian refugees received vouchers in the first round of distribution in the Cairo satellite cities of Al-Obour and 6th of October City, as well as Damietta near the Nile. WFP is planning to reach an additional 4,000 Syrians in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria by the end of this month.

According to figures released by the World Food Programme (WFP) in November, the monthly income of about 77 percent of vulnerable households in Egypt did not cover their monthly needs. (..) According to Alia Hafiz, a nutrition programme officer at WFP’s office in Cairo, an assessment is currently under way to examine the consequences of last year’s events on food security and vulnerability. However, she added, anecdotal evidence suggests that poverty is on the rise in Upper Egypt, and that malnutrition is following an upward trend in the region. “Malnutrition is an issue that is not improving, and it is not stable. It may be on the rise because of the unstable situation,” she said.

Months after he left Tripoli because of civil unrest in Libya, El Badri Mahrous Mohammed still finds himself struggling to make ends meet in his native Egypt. (..) In March, the Egyptian government asked the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to help in providing assistance to the returnees' families under a food-for-training scheme, where they learn vocational skills, such as plumbing, or business skills.

Manar Youssef from the poor southern Cairo district of Basateen in Egypt was not sure what was wrong with her daughter Basmalah until she took her to a specialist who found that she had iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). (..) NNI, in cooperation with UNICEF and the World Food Programme, is sponsoring a programme which gives all schoolchildren biscuits containing iron and folic acid.

Struggling students are helped to realise their educational aspirations. Young people in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt benefit from the Tomooh programme (..) "The Tomooh programme runs in partnership with an NGO in each market: Ajialouna in Lebanon, the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) in Egypt, and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (Johud) in Jordan,"(..).

Egyptian snack food giant Chipsy signed an official partnership on Thursday with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to participate in its “Food for Education” initiative, aimed at promoting youth education and nutrition in Upper Egypt.

The bus screeched to a halt outside the school, raising a huge cloud of dust. (..) The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is playing a role in eliminating this poverty by implementing food-for-education activities in Sohag, in partnership with the governorate and the Ministry of Education.

In the gritty gusts of a sandstorm, men in turbans and women in veils stood uncomplaining for hours outside a ramshackle kiosk, lined up for their daily loaves of "life."(..)The head of the U.N.'s World Food Program said hard-pressed governments are being pushed toward cutting food subsidies, at great risk. "When it comes to food, the margins between stability and chaos are perilously thin," Josette Sheeran said in a statement on the Middle East situation.

Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as causes of the political convulsions in the Middle East and north Africa these last weeks. But a less recognised reason for the turmoil in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and now Iran has been rising food prices, directly linked to a growing regional water crisis. (..) The pressure on natural resources is increasing, and the pressure on the land is great," said Giancarlo Cirri, the UN World Food Programme representative in Yemen.