World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The WFP Deputy Regional Director and Officer in Charge, Alzira Ferreira, and the Regional Director of Plan in the Americas, Roland Angerer, signed an agreement to work together to fight food insecurity to help the most vulnerable populations, especially women and children, in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

ROME/VATICAN CITY – His Holiness Pope Francis this morning granted a private audience to Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).  The meeting took place immediately upon Cousin’s return from Syria and following her recent visit to Israel and Palestine.

The impact of three consecutive natural disasters in 2012 left some 1.5 million Haitians classified as “severely food insecure,” according to Government’s figures. Meanwhile a prolonged drought in the first quarter of 2013 is worsening their situation. WFP is currently distributing take home rations at schools and nutrition health centers, but with dwindling resources, it can only reach 200,000 out of the 400,000 Haitians in need.

Nutritional assistance provided to people still struggling to rebuild their lives three years after the earthquake helps mothers raise healthy children.

In Haiti, the World Food Programme provides meals daily to 685,000 children in the country’s schools. The meals help children learn better and encourages them to come to school everyday. In La Saline, like in many other places in Haiti, the school meals programme also provides the guarantee that children get at least a meal a day.

WFP’s Marcela Ossandon was recently in Haiti to see how people were coping in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. While there, she met three Haitians who seemed to sum up the determination and resilience of a nation struggling to build a better future for itself. In this article she describes these people and WFP’s role in helping.

For many Haitian families who were struggling to recover from a drought and hurricane Isaac, Sandy brought more devastation.



Kristene used to earn his living by milling flour near the town of Jacmel, but that ended when Hurricane Sandy smashed into Haiti earlier this month. He’s now among over 1.5 million Haitians unable to provide for themselves in the wake of a string natural calamities to hit the island this year.

On her way to the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin stopped off in Haiti to see some of WFP’s projects there. She sent back this blog after seeing how children in several schools are now receiving local milk as part of a truly sustainable project that supports local farmers while ensuring children get the nutrition they need.

Two years after the earthquake, many Haitian schools are serving their children with food grown locally. Knowing they have a buyer, farmers are motivated to produce more food. Knowing they'll get good food, kids are keen to go to school - where they get the nutrition they need, plus an education. It's the virtuous circle at the heart of the strategy by the government and WFP to make Haitians more food secure.