World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The mountain village of Ma’aloula is famous as being one of the few places where the ancient language of Aramaic is still spoken. In Aramaic its name means “entrance”. But that name seems sadly inappropriate now, as fierce fighting in the area has made it the scene of an “exodus” by its few thousand inhabitants.  WFP is assisting many of them on the outskirts of Damascus.

In Jordan’s biggest refugee camp, WFP has begun a shift in the way it provides food to families who have fled the conflict in Syria. Instead of traditional food rations, refugees are being introduced to vouchers, which allow them to start buying their own food. With products like cheese and eggs now more accessible, the initial reaction has been enthusiastic.

ERBIL, IRAQ – As the exodus continues of Syrians into the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the leaders of the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme paid tribute to the government here for giving refuge to almost 200,000 people, including some 47,000 arriving in the last two weeks.

Food for up to 185,000 people is on its way to northern Iraq where asylum-seekers from Syria are streaming across the border by the thousands in the single largest outpouring of refugees since the conflict began. Salma and Rushda are two mothers who made the arduous journey with their children.

As the holy month of Ramadan nears its end, close to three million Syrians continue to struggle each day after having left their homes and possessions and fled to safer areas. With limited or no incomes, the traditional Ramadan banquets and sweets seem a distant memory for internally displaced Syrians.

The first evening meal, or iftar, of the holy month of Ramadan is a precious time for Muslim families everywhere but for Syrian refugees like Umm Majd in Jordan’s massive Zaatari refugee camp it’s a bitter-sweet affair.

The conflict in Syria has seriously undermined the ability of families inside the country to grow or buy enough food for themselves, according to a joint report by WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Some 4 million Syrians cannot meet their food needs, a number that is likely to rise if fighting continues.

Dorte Jessen coordinates WFP's food assistance programmes for Syrian refugees in Jordan. She spends much of her time at the Zaatari refugee camp, which has swelled to the size of a large city over the past year. In 2011, Dorte worked at the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. We asked her to compare the two and tell us how things have changed at Zaatari since it opened.

Toqa’s collection of woolly hats is one of the the only things she took with her when her family fled their home in Syria. It's among few reminders of the home she left behind before coming to Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Determined to become a doctor, she's at the top of her class at school where WFP provides nutritious snacks to children like her.

For Syrian mothers like Um Abdou, life as a refugee has been a battle to keep her family from going hungry. She didn't hesitate to sell all her jewelry for food, but it wasn't long before she had no more to sell. Today, food vouchers provided by WFP are putting food on the table for her and around 300,000 other refugees in Lebanon as they wait for the conflict to end.