World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

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.

Zinhle Shabangu (21) wants only the best for her five-month old baby girl. So the HIV-positive mother enrolled at Mbabane Government Hospital to get treatment to minimize the risk of her child becoming infected by the virus. Zinhle also gets special food to make both her and her baby strong.

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.

Vusie Maphalala knows very well that without regular nutritious food people receiving treatment for AIDS cannot benefit from the drugs. Two years ago his wife died for this very reason. Vusie, who also has AIDS, receives food from WFP and so is able to support his family.

WFP has welcomed contributions of $104 million from the US government this month to feed the hungry poor in 15 countries.