World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The following opinion editorial was published by La Prensa Gráfica during World Food Day. WFP Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, states that agriculture remains the main source of employment and income in rural areas, where most of the hungry poor live, and where agricultural cooperatives play a key role in feeding the world. Cooperatives help small farmers and marginalized groups, as well as youth and women, and WFP's Purchase for Progress (P4P) Initiative supports small holder farmers' cooperatives since 2009 in 21 countries, including El Salvador.

The following opinion editorial appeared in La Prensa Gráfica in the frame of World Food Day. Mrs. Ertharin Cousin, WFP executive director refers as agriculture remains the main source of employment and income in rural areas, where most of the poor and hungry people in the world, rural agricultural cooperatives play a vital role in feeding the world. Cooperatives support small farmers and marginalized groups, as well as youth and women, who united their efforts to give them more purchasing and negotiation. Purchase for Progress Initiative is conducted by WFP since 2009. It has been an experience with successful results in 21 countries in the world including El Salvador.

The following story appeared in La Prensa Gráfica and it refers to the case of Eliezar, a three-year-old boy affected by undernutrition who lives in the Cacaopera community, eastern El Salvador. The news piece details how Eliezar overcame undernutrition with the help his 27-year-old mother Rosa Maribel Pérez and the support of the "Nourishing El Salvador" programme.

[News article in Spanish] The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the World Food Programme signed an agreement to push joined efforts that will lead to higher agricultural productivity within Latin America and the Caribbean, in a way that would strengthen the access of its inhabitants towards healthy and better quality of foods.  The General Director of IICA, Victor M. Villalobos, affirmed: “More than a document, this agreement is a commitment with all the countries where the IICA and WFP work together. We will also explore the posibilieties in other parts of the hemisphere in order to share our experiences, especially the ones we reach to work with farmers in a small scale.”. The Executive Director of World Food Programme, Erthain Cousin, seeks to consolidate the work of both organizations for the programme Purchase for Progress(P4P), which has been running in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2009.

[News Article in Spanish] After announcing the purchase of 153 tons of red beans, valued in $ 200,000, from small farmers in the country, the Minister of Education Franzi Hato Hasbun, said they will invest more than $15 million in the School Food Program. The purchase of the beans, which was made jointly with the World Food Programme (WFP), not only benefits students, but also 400 small farmers that before did not have the opportunity to sell their crops. Dorte Ellehammer, Representative of the World Food Programme of the United Nations in El Salvador, said that since 1984 the agency is involved in the School Food Program, which managed by the Ministry of Education.
 

María Elena Muñoz industriously weeds a clearing in the forest and then digs several holes, where she and another four dozen women are planting plantain seedlings to help feed their families in this poor farming area in El Salvador. The group is involved in an agroecology programme that has two main aims: achieving food sovereignty, which is at risk in the rural communities of San Julián; and fomenting the development of energy forests, which provide local families with sustainable energy and help mitigate the impact of climate change.

United Nations aid agencies are ramping up their efforts to provide shelter, food and health care to El Salvador, which is facing one of the greatest disasters in its history as heavy rains continue to cause severe flooding across Central America. (..) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has also launched an emergency operation in cooperation with local governments, and has already provided food to an estimated 230,000 people.

At least 10,000 Salvadorans are in urgent need of food aid after floods and mudslides destroyed huge swaths of crops during harvest season, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday. (..) "Severe flooding washed away entire harvests, homes and livelihoods," said Dorte Ellehammer, WFP representative in El Salvador.

Rescue workers combed through mud, rubble and debris in search of survivors from raging floods and landslides that killed at least 136 people, after a late-season hurricane devastated swaths of Central America. (..) The UN World Food Program warned that over the next few days around 10,000 people in El Salvador will need emergency food assistance.

About 10,000 people in El Salvador are in need of food aid after devastating floods washed away crops. (..) The torrential rains washed away crops across the region, leaving thousands of survivors to face the dangerous lack of a stable food supply, the UN World Food Programme says.