World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Former President Jerry John Rawlings is expected to join hands with 11 year old Ghanaian School boy Master Andrew Adansi-Bonnah's to raise funds to save women and children from hunger in Somalia. (..) The Programme is supported by UNICEF Ghana, World Food Programme Ghana, the Country Awards Council (..).

The drought in the Horn of Africa is affecting 12.4 million people, according to the United Nations, which says that the continent is facing its most serious food crisis since the famine in Somalia in 1991-1992. Here is a timeline of the crisis" (..) JULY: (..) 27: The World Food Programme begins airlifting emergency supplies to Mogadishu.

(..) When World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran visited hunger sites in Kenya and Somalia last month, she brought along Peter Bakker, the former chief executive of the transportation company TNT and a current U.N. ambassador against hunger. Bakker is helping rally businesses to provide support for those affected by the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.
 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that efforts to keep African farmers and pastoralists on their feet, prevent the crisis from worsening and speed progress toward recovery are not being adequately funded. (..) FAO lauded the African Union for convening the conference and encouraged African Union members and other African nations to boost investment in agriculture and play a leadership role in responding to the crisis, and pledged the support of the FAO-WFP led Food Security Cluster in helping coordinate the response.

Somalia has had no functioning government since January 1991, when former President Siyad Barre was ousted. (..) January 2010: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) withdraws from areas under the control of Al-Shabab, most of southern and central Somalia, after threats from the group;(..).

Once again a desperate humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa has caught the attention of the world at large. (..) The funds to be raised by the African Union will be used to fill emergency funding gap through operational partners such as UNHCR and WFP, while the longer term mitigation programme at the regional level will be carried out through FAO and WFP.

African Union officials say they hope to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at an international pledging conference for victims of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. (..) But WFP East Africa regional director Stanlake Samkange said even in Mogadishu, which was cleared of al-Shabab fighters nearly three weeks ago, Somalia’s weak Transitional Federal Government is unable to provide security for food deliveries to a quarter of a million people living in makeshift camps.

As I write, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa continues to worsen. (..) Kenya currently has about 447,000 refugees in Dadaab with 1,500 new arrivals every day. These are not refugees of war as we more often see, but rather they are refugees of famine as they have been described by the World Food Program.

The Saudi National Campaign for the Relief of the Somali People announced that it has raised $54m in relief funding for the people suffering from famine in Somalia (..)The relief funds will be distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and, according to the organization, donations will be used to feed Somali children suffering from malnutrition.

Singer and philanthropist Jack Johnson has reached out to Africa Famine Relief and donated $30,000. The famine crisis affects Africans daily and Johnson has pledged $10,000 to three organizations: UNICEF, Save the Children and the World Food Programme. Each charity work to raise relief efforts in the Horn of Africa.