World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Rakhatoy Khasanova, a widowed mother of five, receiving her two-month food ration from WFP. Winter food assistance is essential during the coming harsh months for people like Rakhatoy who does not have a job, a land or any cash support from either family or friends.

Rakhatoy has been waiting for her WFP food ration since last Spring and was well-prepared to receive it; she rented a cart from her neighbour to take her food ration home.

As soon as she's home, Rakhatoy uses WFP wheat flour and oil to cook lepeshka,traditional Kyrgyz bread. Lepeshkas and tea will be the only food Rakhatoy and her children eat this week. WFP assessments show that nearly one million people in Kyrgyzstan face food shortages. Many people, especially in rural areas, resort to harmful coping strategies such as reducing meal size, skip meals and going days without eating or using nutritionally poor foods.

As Rakhatoy’s children will start their winter vacations very soon, she decided to cook something special for them; pirozhki, fried pasties with mashed potatoes.

No meal in Rakhatoy’s households starts without a prayer thanking God for the meal they're about to eat. 

Rakhatoy’s children can’t take their eyes off the bread and pasties coming to the coverlet the family uses as a simple tablecloth.  

There are days in Rakhatoy’s households when she struggles to put a meal a day for her children. For the two next months, she won’t have to worry about how she will feed her family.