World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

In January 2012, WFP finalised its winter food assistance to more than 270,000 poorest Kyrgyz people. This food distribution took place in Kosh-Dobo rayon of Naryn oblast, one of the poorest parts of what is already one of the poorest countries in CIS. WFP trucks had to make a perilous journey through a snow-covered and extremely hazardous mountain path that lies at the 3,100 meters above the sea level. A 400-km distance between the WFP warehouse and Kosh-Dobo village required nearly 12-hour travel.

For poor Naryn families coal, gas or other heating materials are unaffordable, so they use kizyak (bricks of dried dung) to heat their houses. Despite efforts, the in-house temperature rarely rises higher than 8-10 Celsius, however, even this represents a salvation from the -30 Celsius cold in the streets.

Frozen vegetable oil, a rare picture for WFP global operations, is a common pattern for cold-hit Naryn oblast. It takes just a few hours for vegetable oil, with its normal freezing point of -16 to -19 Celsius, to become icy pasty mass

The wheat flour and vegetable oil that WFP distributes give beneficiaries in this small mountainous Naryn village a small measure of freedom from penury and desperation. Naryn oblast was found to be the worst affected by food-insecurity and poverty which keeps 45% of population in destitution.

Heavy snowfalls and extreme weather are a regular occurrence in rural Kyrgyzstan which exacerbates hardships for many impoverished families who struggle to eke out their own existence in unforgiving climate. Prolong and harsh winters test their ability to bounce back from adversity of lean seasons when food is scarcest and food prices are at the peak

In Kyrgyzstan, the burden of rural poverty is shouldered mostly by women who raise the children alone after their husbands disappear into Russia’s migrant labour pool, leave families or dye. For this woman, a two-month food ration she received from WFP means she has something to put on the table for her children during harsh winter when extreme temperatures of – 30 to – 40 Celsius make any income activities impossible

For many poor villagers in this unforgiving mountain climate the daily diet is unchanging: tea and bread in the morning, soup and bread for lunch and what remains of these for dinner. With long and extreme winter (- 40 Celsius is normal temperature in some parts of Naryn) that lasts for more than six months – from October to March, short agricultural season and poor food supplies, the villagers do not produce enough to make it through the winter and heavily rely on humanitarian assistance

For many poor villagers in this unforgiving mountain climate the daily diet is unchanging: tea and bread in the morning, soup and bread for lunch and what remains of these for dinner. With long and extreme winter (- 40 Celsius is normal temperature in some parts of Naryn) that lasts for more than six months – from October to March, short agricultural season and poor food supplies, the villagers do not produce enough to make it through the winter and heavily rely on humanitarian assistance.