World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

At an elementary school in the Kurdistan region straddling the border between Turkey and Iraq, these little girls receive a daily meal that has all the vitamins and nutrients their bodies need to learn and grow. They're among more than 500,000 children in these region who are getting an education and a warm meal with help from WFP.

The Government of Iraq is the main donor to WFP school meals in Iraq. WFP is working with the Ministry of Education to implement school meals programmes in the most food insecure districts of Iraq.

Students at this school in Kurdistan study a number of subjects including foreign languages like English--not something they can do on an empty stomach.

The food is also important in providing parents with an added incentive to send girls to school, like this 6-year-old who is learning how to read and write.

A school teacher distributes snacks to elementary school students in a rural Choman, in the Kurdistan region. Iraq has had high rates of stunting among children due to some nutrient deficiencies.

The school meals project is the largest WFP activity in the country and aims to restore school attendance and learning which have been adversely affected by the conflict. Students in the small town of Amedi, 15 kilometers from the Turkish border in the Kurdistan region - one of the most food insecure areas in Iraq – receive a daily nutritious snack fortified with vitamins and minerals which keep them energized in the cold winter.

Elementary students at a school in the town of Choman, few kilometers from the Iran- Iraq border, throwing snow balls at each other during the break. All students in the school receive WFP nutritious snacks right before their break to boost their academic performance and provide them with essential nutrients.

6 year old Heeran walks from school to home in the snow in the rural areas of Kurdistan on the borders of Iran. She and her sisters receive WFP nutritious snacks and she says it gives her energy to walk back and forth from school in this cold weather.