WFP Ambassador Against Hunger Hend Sabry Visits Syrian Refugees In Beirut
BEIRUT – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Ambassador Against Hunger Hend Sabry visited Syrian refugees in Beirut ahead of the holy month of Ramadan to highlight WFP’s award-winning mobile phone application ShareTheMeal, which provides an easy means for smartphone users to help feed Syrian refugee children in Lebanon with just a tap on their phones.
The Tunisian actress visited families who fled to Lebanon over five years ago when the conflict in Syria began. In the absence of stable employment opportunities, these families struggle to provide even the most basic food for their young children. With ShareThemeal, available in English and Arabic, users can make donations that will be used to provide food assistance to these families.
"Over five painful years, I visited Syrian refugees regularly - both in camps and in urban areas – and with very year that passed the situation got worse,” said Sabry. “This time, all I can say is that I don't see how much longer this situation can last. It is a human catastrophe.”
During her visit to Beirut, Sabry also visited a WFP validation centre where families are checking their e-cards to ensure that they are in working order and collecting special rations, the traditional food for breaking the daily fast in Ramadan.
“No person on Earth should be living in the back of a truck like Omar's family. No adult on Earth should think of selling an organ to feed his children. No child on Earth should be deprived from the basic chances of survival,” Sabry added. “Today more than ever, our message as the entire humanity should be: five years is enough!"
Syrian refugee families in Lebanon receive food assistance through electronic vouchers or “e-cards”. Money raised through ShareTheMeal’s current fundraising goal will cover the rations for a full year for 1,400 Syrian children aged 3-4 years living in Beirut. The children’s parents will receive funds transferred to their regular WFP e-cards, allowing them to buy the foods they want in local shops, which also supports host communities and the Lebanese economy.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +202 2528 1730 ext. 2600, Mob. +201066634352
Dina El-Kassaby, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +202 2528 1730 ext. 2614, Mob. +201015218882
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65132321, Mob. +39 346 7600521
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44 20 72409001, Mob. +44 7968 008474
Gerald Bourke, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-646-5566909, Mob. +1-646 525 9982