World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Akhtar Zaman and his 25-member extended family fled fighting in the Swat district six weeks ago. They are now staying with relatives in Mardan and being supported by WFP. Their story is the story of hundreds of thousands of families in northern Pakistan at the moment.

Against the backdrop of the major humanitarian crisis unfolding in northern Pakistan, WFP is leading the United Nations and humanitarian agencies in implementing an innovative approach to delivering food, shelter and vitally needed relief to families displaced by fighting.

WFP food assistance is helping make sure that displaced children like Shahzad can lead dignified lives until the time comes when they can go back to their lives and homes.

WFP is now assisting 650,000 IDPs in Pakistan’s troubled border region with Afghanistan, including 200,000 who have arrived in recent days from Lower Dir, Swat and Buner districts

WFP has revised contingency plans and is preparing to provide food assistance to as many as one million IDPs in Pakistan’s troubled border regions with Afghanistan in the wake of new fighting between the Pakistan army and insurgents.

Pakistan, riven by political tensions in the last few days, has an ongoing need for food assistance which has deepened recently due to high food prices, conflict and natural disasters. In response, WFP is ramping up its programmes in 2009.

"As the fighting increased, we had no other option but to leave our home. Life is so difficult my children are traumatized; my wife and mother are scared."

WFP is distributing fortified ready-to-eat biscuits to the worst-affected District of Ziarat from WFP warehouses in Quetta. It is also supplying flour, pulses, vegetable oil and salt in ration packets in many villages.

WFP has welcomed US government contributions in September totaling US$110.7 million for the hungry poor in 11 countries from Latin America to Asia. Nearly half the resources were targeted to Sudan, home to WFP’s single-largest operation in the world.

WFP has begun distributing high energy biscuits and other food to victims of severe flooding in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan and is preparing to step up its operations if requested by governments.