World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Yudhika Sujanani has recently become a WFP Hunger Advocate and in June 2013 traveled to Lesotho for the first time to see first-hand how WFP is working with vulnerable communities to overcome hunger and malnutrition. 

A local man works for the School Meals programme at Montsi Combined School in the district of Thaba Tseka. He cooks 2 daily meals for more than 200 students including this meal consisting of fish, a maize meal porridge and beans. School Meals ensure that attendance rates stay high in mountainous regions where WFP-supported schools operate. 

WFP supports schools which are located in the high mountainous regions of Lesotho, areas which are very challenging to reach and where simple things like oranges and other fruit are in short supply. 

Yudhika is using her fame and success in South Africa to help WFP raise awareness of the hunger and malnutrition issues taking place next door in Lesotho. This year more than 220,000 people in Lesotho will require humanitarian assistance. 

While in Lesotho, Yudhika had the opportunity to visit one of the WFP supported "Positive Deviance" clubs, a place where community members exchange ideas and learn new cooking and preparation skills to improve the nutritional status of their families. 

Men and women in the community who have healthy families show others in their village how to enrich foods with extra nutrients, as well as new ways to store food which can be used during the lean season. 

Members of the Positive Deviance Club take Yudhika inside the house to show her their handmade bread enriched with carrots and pulses. 

Excess food used to rot in the fields, but Yudhika learns that through WFP supported Positive Deviance Clubs community members are learning new preservation skills such as jarring and canning, as well as a variety of alternative ways to prepare nutritious foods with local ingredients.