World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The high cost of child malnutrition in Swaziland was showcased at the launch of the latest country-level study in the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) series on 18 July. The Cost of Hunger in Swaziland, produced by the Government of Swaziland with support from WFP, is the first COHA study in southern Africa and among the first to quantify the social and economic impacts of child undernutrition.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Country Office and the Swaziland Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) have signed a bilaleral agreement, which will serve to continue the successful handover of the national primary school meals programme.  WFP managed the programme until 2012, when it transitioned to Ministry of Education administration.
 

For Khumbu Shiba, who has been HIV-positive for three years, WFP’s food and nutrition assistance has meant all the difference. Before, she was barely able to care for her family, and felt very weak. Now, she has regained her health and has even started her own business.

The high cost of child malnutrition in Swaziland was showcased at the launch of the latest country-level study in the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) series on 18 July. The Cost of Hunger in Swaziland, produced by the Government of Swaziland with support from WFP, is the first COHA study in southern Africa and among the first to quantify the social and economic impacts of child undernutrition.

In schools in rural Swaziland, vulnerable children, many of whom have lost a parent or parents to HIV/AIDS, learn useful life skills in addition to their regular lessons while WFP supplies their families with basic foodstuffs.

In a country where AIDS has left countless children orphans and where life expectancy is only 47, Nosipho and her grandchildren might appear to have the cards stacked against them. But with a bit of food assistance, the determined 50-year-old, diagnosed with HIV five years ago, is steering the children towards a brighter future.

NKILONGO - Life is difficult for Mndeni Mlduli, a five-year-old Swazi orphan who is HIV-positive and on anti-retroviral medicines. But thanks to a neighbourhood feeding scheme in his community in rural Swaziland, he has regained the strength and energy he needs to play and be a child again.

Life has never been easy for Mana Mamba, a 24-year-old single mother raising four children in improverished rural Swaziland. But it’s getting easier thanks to a family feeding programme which has spared her youngest from malnutrition while helping his siblings stay in school.

Food assistance enables millions of people in southern Africa to cope with the impact of HIV/AIDS, high food prices and natural disasters. But with WFP facing an unprecedented budget shortfall, many risk losing this critical support.

Sisana Mavimbela is a remarkable woman. A 49-year-old mother of eight and a grandmother of five, Sisana somehow finds the time – and energy – to help care for another 46 children in her community. WFP helps her do it.