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Logistics
26 August 2009

My Day In The Air Drop Zone

Denys Saltanov is part of a small WFP team stationed in an area of northeastern Congo where the only reliable way to deliver emergency food aid is through airdrops. A key part of Denys' job is to collect the food when it lands and distribute it. He describes a typical day.
Responding to Emergencies
25 August 2009

Kenyan Herders Devastated As Long Rains Fail

Kenya’s drought has forced herders to roam further and further with their animals in search of pasture. Cattle are dying, pushing pastoralist communities into hunger and swelling the numbers of Kenyans needing food assistance. Read News Release
Food For Assets
24 August 2009

Cassava Project Offers Food, Hope In Northeastern Uganda

Some 16,000 residents of the dry Karamoja region are learning to cultivate cassava, a drought-resistent crop that can help the area overcome its longstanding hunger problems. It's one of the ways WFP and its sister UN agency FAO are promoting long-term 'food security'.
Responding to Emergencies
21 August 2009

WFP To Increase Assistance To Southern Sudan

WFP will dispatch more food to southern Sudan where conflict, poor rainfall and high food prices have combined to push the number of people needing assistance up to 1.3 million. Airdrops will be needed to reach remote areas.
Logistics
20 August 2009

Braced For Haiti’s Hurricane Season

As the first hurricane of 2009 grinds its way across the western Atlantic, the World Food Programme in Haiti is completing disaster-preparedness measures for this year’s hurricane season, in an island nation hit by four serious storms last year
Aid professionals
20 August 2009

What’s At Stake In Afghanistan

Afghans working to build a better future for their country face a difficult and dangerous task. But for this World Food Programme staff member in Kabul, the risks are worth it. His name is being withheld for security reasons.
Aid professionals
19 August 2009

World Humanitarian Day – 19 August 2009

World Humanitarian Day is being observed for the first time this year even as attacks against humanitarian workers have reached record levels.
Aid professionals
19 August 2009

WFP’s Regional Cairo Bureau Marks World Humanitarian Day With Tribute, Plaque

WFP staff member Gene Luna, killed in a 2007 bomb attack in Algiers, is one of scores of humanitarian workers who have died in the line of duty in recent years.
Responding to Emergencies
13 August 2009

Funding Shortfall Adds To Misery Of Displaced Yemenis

A five-year conflict pitting government forces against rebels in northern Yemen has caused widespread suffering and displaced tens of thousands of people. Their plight worsened recently when WFP was forced to halve rations due to lack of funds.
Food For Assets
12 August 2009

Water Arrives In Sudan’s Drought Belt

For years, residents of central Sudan’s desolate North Kordofan state spent precious time and money to obtain water. No longer – thanks to a massive reservoir, built as a World Food Programme food-for-work project.
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Worth reading

Thought-provoking articles that deal with hunger and the issues involved in meeting the hunger challenge.

  • BBC News

    Hard choices over food versus education in Malawi

    Food or education? Public spending choices are never easy. But in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, the choices are particularly stark. The government has made "food security" - which means making sure people have enough to eat - the top priority for government spending.
  • New York Times

    No Shortage of Blame as Haiti Struggles to Feed Itself

    With its rich delta soil and a year-round growing season, Haiti's famous agricultural region seems capable of feeding the entire Caribbean. But Haiti is a net importer of food, spending about $400 million last year on purchases from abroad. The World Food Programme runs child nutrition and "food for work" operations.
  • Reuters Alertnet

    Solutions to global hunger are within our reach

    Technological advances in rice production have enabled China to feed an additional 60 million people per year since 1978, while investments in agriculture by farmers in Niger have revitalised an estimated 5 million hectares of land and improved access to food for at least 1 million people.
  • Reuters

    Special report -The fight over the future of food

    At first glance, Giuseppe Oglio's farm near Milan looks like it's suffering from neglect. Weeds run rampant amid the rice fields and clover grows unchecked around his millet crop. Oglio, a third generation farmer eschews modern farming techniques -- chemicals, fertilizers, heavy machinery -- in favor of a purely natural approach. It is not just ecological, he says, but profitable, and he believes his system can be replicated in starving regions of the globe.
  • Associated Press (AP)

    Devastating Drought Alters Life For Kenya Nomads

    When 64-year-old Jimale Irobe was a young man, he guided his herds of cows and camels through knee-high grass. These days the scrubby blades barely reach his ankles even in the rainy season, and there is never enough grass to go around. The cattle cannot feed, and the nomadic families that depend on them for milk and meat cannot survive.(..) Aid agency Oxfam says 23 million people need food aid this year after the drought that swept across eastern Africa and the Horn region. Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit. And a September report by the International Food Policy Research Institute predicted that the worldwide effects of climate change will lead to twenty-five million additional children becoming malnourished by 2050.