WFP Video News Release Pakistan floods Location Pakistan Language: English TRT: 2’55’’ 00:00-00:37 Kalam Valley 5 August 2010 Aerials, GV of the valley, WFP food bags in the helicopter, WFP high energy biscuits Flooded land 00:37-01:21 Kalam Valley GV of Pakistani army off loading WFP food on the ground GV of people queuing for airlift 01:21-02:01 SOT Amir Abdulla, WFP Deputy Executive Director Rome 5 August 2010 “The floods in Pakistan have been devastating. They have devastated the infrastructure..roads have been washed away, bridges have been washed away. To reach the people who are in great need of live saving assistance at this time, food, medical , shelter, the needs are huge. To get there the World Food Programme and our partners are using every means possible. We have started a helicopter airlift to people who are stranded...... We are also using on the ground support, people are using mules people are using carts . Whatever we can find to move food and any other live support assistance we will do so “ 02:01-02:26 Mian Guja, Peshawar 4 August 2010 GV of WFP food distribution 02:26-02:55 Ring Road Peshawar 4 August 2010 GV of WFP food distribution WFP News Release 5 August 2010 WFP LAUNCHES HELICOPTER RELIEF OPERATION TO FEED MORE PAKISTAN FLOOD VICTIMS ISLAMABAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has today launched a major airlift, using helicopters to boost its ongoing relief operation and bring desperately needed food to people cut off by the devastating floods in northern Pakistan. The Pakistan government has offered WFP the use of six helicopters to transport food to tens of thousands of hungry and desperate people in isolated communities across the Swat Valley. A WFP team has been in the Swat Valley identifying safe locations for the helicopters to land. WFP and its international and national NGO partners will carry out distributions of ready-to-eat foods for infants and young children, high energy biscuits and wheat flour, to WFP-identified beneficiaries. The first three missions to the town of Kalam took place on Thursday morning, carrying a total of 7 metric tons of food – sufficient to feed 2,500 people for one week. “In this scene of devastation, with roads cut and bridges washed away, these helicopters are literally life-savers as they are the only way to get vital food supplies to many thousands of hungry and desperate people,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. WFP began food distributions on Sunday in the worst-affected areas of Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera and byThursday evening had provided rations for 236,880 people, with 2,906 metric tons of food supplies. WFP is currently conducting food needs assessments in five of the worst-hit areas, and will move into additional areas as they become accessible. First indications are that around 1.8 million people across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province are in need of food assistance. # # # WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries. WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/rss For video footage please contact jonathan.dumont@wfp.org WFP has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials. For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org): Amjad Jamal, WFP/Islamabad, Mob: +92 300 850 0989 Marcus Prior, WFP/Bangkok, Mob: + 66 81 701 9208 Caroline Hurford, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Mob. +44-7968-008474 Emilia Casella, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Mob. +41-792857304 Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2 02 25281730 ext. 2600, Mob. +2 016 663 4352 Dena Gudaitis, WFP/New York, Tel. +1 6465566914 Mob. +1 9173402588