World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

You name it, Camp Corail has got it. And Camp Obama does not. The organized relocation camp at Corail-Cesselesse has thousands of spacious, hurricane-resistant tents on groomed, graded mountain soil. The settlement three miles (four kilometers) down the road — named after the U.S. president in hopes of getting attention from foreigners — has leaky plastic tarps and wooden sticks pitched on a muddy slope. Corail has a stocked U.N. WFP warehouse for its 3,000-and-counting residents; the more than 8,500 at Camp Obama are desperate for food and water.

In the weeks after the earthquake struck in Haiti, the UN WFP rushed in emergency rations such as high energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals. Over time, the food aid has shifted toward programs that not only fight hunger, but help to rebuild the country. These are Cash and Food for Work projects for Haitians. The WFood Programme uses a 60 percent cash and 40 percent food incentive for Haitian workers to do reconstruction projects. The food ration is enough for a family of five.

The meal doesn't look like much, rice, a few vegetables and a little bit of meat, but for the Haitian school children who receive it for free, it is reason enough to come to class.(..)"It's difficult to convince parents to send their children to school. They are scared that there will be another earthquake and the school will be destroyed," said Alejandro Chicheri, a spokesman for the World Food Programme.

Tucked into the hills that rise above central Port-au-Prince lies Bourdon Valley, an enclave of beautiful, verdant forest flanked by the eastern suburbs of Delmas and Canape Vert. With its thick mango groves and gently winding river, it's easy to see why one would make this home. But the small, basic concrete houses that once lined the Valley walls now lie in ruin, replaced by the blue and white tarp shelters that now blanket so much of Port-au-Prince's landscape.(..)The World Food Programme will provide early food distributions and International Medical Corps will operate a medical facility.

This blog chronicles the travels of photographer/ writer, Bradley Rae, whose objective is to raise awareness of humanitarian crises around the globe. He has worked with Doctors Without Borders in Papua New Guinea (during a cholera epidemic), and has just recently returned from Haiti. Next on the agenda is Ethiopia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.(..)Anti UN graffiti is written on walls, as well are pleas for help to the outside world. And behind closed doors, tireless meetings continue in the UN and its subdivisions (ie World Food Program and World Health Organization) with NGOs and media packing the rooms in attendance.

A United Nations World Food Program (WFP) helicopter lands in Parques, a remote town south from Leogane, Haiti, to distribute food on April 14, 2010. About 300 families from Port-au-Prince fled in the poor village after the January 12 quake, but locals are lacking food to feed about 8,000 people.

The televised images of weeping Haitian children searching for their parents jolted celebrity chef Cat Cora. She joined actor George Clooney’s early fundraising drive, and within weeks of the quake she helped the United Nations’ World Food Programme launch “One Million in 1 Month for Haiti,” which aimed to raise $1 million in 30 days for Haiti’s earthquake victims.

A new Haiti relief effort will see a camp set up 12 miles outside Port-au-Prince to provide shelter for some 5,000 quake refugees before the upcoming rainy season. The Corail Cesselesse camp is the first major housing effort since the Jan. 12 earthquake. It's dry, but far from the city, schools, supplies, and jobs.(..)As of today, the WFP has closed its free food distribution sites across the capital city. From now on, only those designated recipients – children, pregnant women, elderly – will receive WFP food.

Standing at the wrecked national palace, President Rene Preval on Monday rejected criticism of his government over legions of his people still being without shelter three months after Haiti's earthquake.(..)The leader of the World Food Program in Haiti, Christian Labon, said the activity is a remarkable contrast to the period immediately following the quake. His agency has returned to distributing food to targeted areas of need, rather than trying to feed almost 2 million people daily as in the days just after the disaster.

NB. The WFP leader quoted in this article is not Christian Labon, but Etienne Labande, Head of Programme Section.

The mayors from Haiti's Central Plateau gathered in a stuffy auditorium in the town of Pandiassou. Dressed in short-sleeve shirts and casual pants that marked their former careers as farmers, their frustration boiled over.(..)But, it was the only time the Haitian secretary of state and a representative from the World Food Program could come to discuss distributing long-term aid.