World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The ironies of life. We are an archipelago of 7,000 islands buffeted by 26 typhoons each year and yet half of the population have no drinking water. Now we are seeing millions of children starving for food, in the middle of a tropical paradise of seafoods and wondrous fruits. It has gotten so bad that multinationals like the World Food Program, Unilever and Mead Johnson have to be invited to partner with government and NGOs to feed our children. [...] We are talking not only about kids in some farflung barangay out there in the boondocks, we are also talking about children fainting in a classroom in Metro Manila at 8 o’clock in the morning because they have had nothing to eat for the last 24 hours.

KC Concepcion, national ambassador against hunger for United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP), visited the agency’s main headquarters in Rome, Italy over the weekend to discuss the situation in the Philippines, specifically in Mindanao.

KC CONCEPCION, the eldest daughter of singer-actress Sharon Cuneta, flew to the headquarters of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome last week to plead for more funds—at least $7 million (P340 million)—to help feed poor children in Mindanao. A rising star herself, KC (short for Kristina Cassandra) spoke to some 100 officials and staff members of the WFP as the national ambassador for hunger, a title she shares with actors Sean Penn and Drew Barrymore of Hollywood, soccer superstar Kaka of Brazil, and actor-musician Jang Dong-gun of South Korea. [...] KC was later brought to WFP executive director Josette Sheeran for a private meeting. [...] “Today has been an enormous experience for me. Of course, meeting with Madame Sheeran was a great honor. She listened as I updated her on certain issues concerning our program in Mindanao. To realize that she was aware of who I was, and also recognized my efforts truly surprised and humbled me,” she told the Inquirer.

A hostage crisis involving three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers may force agencies to stop bringing assistance to some areas, officials told IRIN, as humanitarian workers feel increasingly under threat in the hostile south. Stephen Anderson, the World Food Programme (WFP) country representative, said additional protection measures for his 60 local and foreign staff were paramount as the situation in Mindanao had become "dramatically more insecure". "We can still manage the risk, though we have taken a number of measures in terms of security," Anderson told IRIN. "It [the kidnapping] affects us because we are concerned about the welfare of colleagues who do the same type of work."

Last January alone, the Japanese government gave an emergency food aid amounting to 860 million Yen (approximately $9.2 million) of 7,500 Metric tons of rice to the IDPs through the United Nation’s World Food Program, aside from providing sleeping mats, blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, water containers, and plastic sheets for tents, through a GGP project since December 2008.

The BBC's Jill McGivering looks at prospects for peace in Mindanao, where fighting between Philippine troops and separatist rebels is causing a humanitarian crisis.

KC Concepcion said she is planning to either write a book tackling her work as a national ambassador against hunger for United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP) or blog about her experience. Concepcion said she wants to follow the example of Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Drew Barrymore. [...] Concepcion also disclosed that she might see Barrymore in Rome, Italy on March 27 when she meets with the UN-WFP executives.

The United Nations will continue its food aid program in conflict-affected areas in Central Mindanao, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said in its report. The UN food program benefited a total of 1,611,980 affected individuals in 2007 and has helped boost the peace process in Mindanao. “Currently, WFP has extended its support in Mindanao through the program on Immediate Support to Conflict-Affected Population in partnership with the Philippine government,” announced Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Avelino Razon Jr. who received the copy of the recently released WFP report yesterday. [...] Razon thanked the WFP for prioritizing conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, adding their move would help alleviate the plight of poor and marginalized people in Central Mindanao.

Japan will show anew its commitment to peace in Mindanao with the inauguration of a Project for Center for Excellence in Humanitarian Service in Cotabato City on Saturday. [...] Japan's assistance for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mindanao, who have been forced to evacuate since last August because of the conflict between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), includes the Grant Agreement signed last month to provide emergency food aid amounting to ¥860 million ($9.5 million), or 7,500 metric tons of rice, through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

International relief agencies are continuing their operation amid a series of kidnappings involving foreign aid workers in the troubled southern Philippines, UNWFP said today. "We don't feel we are the targets, but our security experts are closely coordinating with the military," Stephen Anderson, country director of the United Nation's World Food Programme (UNWFP), said while they were distributing relief assistance to thousands of people displaced by the conflict between the military and separates rebels.