World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Ms Rosette Kansiime, sits with her ailing child, Prosy Natukunda, on a hospital bed at Nyahuka Health Centre in Bundibugyo District. She has been at the centre for weeks nursing her baby.(..)“Over 38 per cent of all children in Uganda, aged five and under, are stunted,” WFP Country Director, Mr Stanlake Samkange says. “This a major challenge as the condition can lead to life-long damage to the minds and futures of children.”

The World Food Programme (WFP) still needs $20m (about sh40b) to fund Karamoja’s productive assets programme. The project is aimed at breaking the region’s reliance on food aid. (..) “Karamoja has been relying on food relief for too long,” World Food country director Stanlake Samkange said. “We can help change this. The new programme enables us to seize development opportunities, while finding lasting solutions to food and nutrition insecurity.”

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) needs US$25 million to support a new programme aimed at reducing food aid dependency in hunger stricken northeastern Uganda(..)In a statement, the food aid agency said that the money is needed for the Karamoja Productive Assets Programme, which expected to run until December, will be focusing on building of community assets to strengthen livelihoods and reduce dependency on food aid.

Semi arid region -also known as Karamoja - has for decades depended entirely on food aid following persistent spells of drought which have led to massive crop failures.(..)"Karamoja needs to find a way out of the almost continual need for food and other assistance and WFP is a vital part of the solution," said WFP Uganda Country Director Stanlake Samkange.

Following the low maize prices resulting from surplus production, President Yoweri Museveni has promised the government will set up pubic stores in the country where farmers can keep their produce and sell when the prices are better.(..)In Uganda, WFP is the leading buyer of quality oriented grades. In addition to adding value to their commodity by storing it under a particular grade, it gives farmers an opportunity to supply a relief agency like WFP.

After growing different crops on a subsistence basis for over 15 years, Elias Simuntu decided in 2004 to farm commercially.(..)“The direct purchase by WFP has helped us a lot as small scale farmers to also benefit from their good prices,” Simuntu says. Stanlake Samkange, the WFP country director in Uganda, says P4P was started by WFP in 2008 to increase local purchases in areas where WFP operates. “WFP spends over $1b each year purchasing relief food.

Semu Nderema smiles as he stands under a cocoa tree. This is the biggest cocoa harvest he has had in almost 10 years. In 1999, he had a small harvest and last year there was none.(..)The World Food Programme (WFP) reveals that over 45% of the children in Bundibugyo are malnourished, compared to the national average of about 38%.

At least 900,000 people in Karamoja, northeastern Uganda, are facing severe food insecurity due to consecutive rain failure and poor harvests over four years, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).(..)“Erratic rainfall in 2009 has indeed had an effect on the main harvest in Karamoja, and as such WFP maintained its general food distribution operations for nearly 90 percent of the population up until December," Stanlake Samkange, WFP country director, said.

A farming ban imposed on Rwandan refugees in southwestern Uganda is raising concerns for their food security,(..) right now most of them are relying on food distributed by WFP.

The United Nations is continuing to assist people in eastern Uganda affected by deadly landslides, which have killed at least 94 people since they occurred earlier this month (..). The UN World Food Program (WFP) has helped distribute one month 's worth of food to the nearly 800 households in the camp, and UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) are immunizing children against polio and measles.