Germany Contributes €10 Million To WFP Food Assistance For Syrian Refugees
DOHUK – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed today a generous contribution of €10 million (US$13.3 million) from the Government of Germany that will help provide critical food assistance to thousands of vulnerable Syrian refugees in Iraq and neighbouring countries.
The German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel announced Germany‘s new contribution on Sunday during a visit to Domiz camp in Dohuk in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
“Germany has always been one of our invaluable partners. Thanks to this contribution, we will be able to continue to provide food vouchers to Syrian families living in Iraqi refugee camps in addition to high-energy biscuits, distributed daily until the end of the year to all school-aged children in camp schools,” said WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Iraq Ute Meir. “This contribution underscores the German commitment to stand by Syrian refugees wherever they are and where the needs are high.”
This contribution brings the total German support to WFP’s operations for the Syrian people both inside Syria and in the neighbouring countries to close to €35 million (US$46.5 million) since the conflict started in Syria in 2011.
Mr. Niebel saw first-hand WFP’s school feeding and food voucher programmes and visited one of the shops where refugees use their vouchers to buy fresh produce.
WFP and its partner Islamic Relief provide food vouchers to Syrian refugees living in Domiz camp. Last month, almost 57,000 Syrians in Iraq received WFP food vouchers. In addition, WFP has distributed since March 2013 almost 18 metric tons of high-energy biscuits to over 4,500 Syrian refugee children attending schools in camps in Iraq.
WFP uses food vouchers in places where food is available in the market but people cannot afford to buy it. The system allows them to buy the food of their choice including fresh foods that cannot be included in WFP’s conventional food basket. This system also helps boost the local economy. Since the beginning of 2013, WFP injected through the voucher programmes over €75.3 million (US$100 million) into the local economies of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt.
“The Government of Germany had been supporting our assistance to Syrians since the beginning of the conflict in Syria and their support is also bringing a lot of help to the local communities hosting Syrian refugees,” said Meir.
WFP needs to raise €23 million ($US30 million) every week to meet the food needs of people affected by the conflict in Syria.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Laure Chadraoui, WFP/Beirut-Amman, Mob. + 962795917987 and +9613489925
Ralf Suedhoff, WFP/Berlin, Tel. +49 (0)30 2061 4912 Mob +49 160 9491 254
Abeer Etefa. WFP/Cairo, Tel. +202 2528 1730 ext. 2610, Mob. +2 010 666 34352