WFP nutrition programme offers crucial support to a mother who had no choice but to leave her 9-month old baby with his five-year old brother as she sought work.
Story by Eulalia Berlanga
Can you imagine leaving your baby with their young sibling as you go off to work? Giving your young child the responsibility of ensuring the infant eats and is kept healthy and safe. For most people this is unthinkable, but unfortunately such childcare arrangements are common in the camps for internally displaced people (IDP) in Juba, South Sudan. Often young children are the primary caregivers for infants while their parents go out in search of work.
“I work in a restaurant and I have to leave Nhial with his five-year old brother when I’m out,” says…
Good health and nutrition allow children to learn and perform better at school, broadening their educational opportunities. WFP’s school feeding programme provides not just calories but also the nutrients needed to grow bodies and brains — while ensuring that served meals are adapted to local taste and boost local production, supporting local farmers.
In the Republic of Congo, the World Food Programme (WFP) is working on the fortification of foufou, a favorite staple food made from cassava flour — to reduce the incidence of nutrient deficiencies and fight child malnutrition. …
This young group of refugees in Kenya certainly believe so and aims to solve malnutrition by farming fish.
Story by Vanessa Langat
Vijana Twaweza — “youth we can”. A very appropriate name for a small group of determined young people in Kakuma refugee camp, northern Kenya, who are focused on combatting malnutrition and fighting hunger by rearing fish using an agricultural ecosystem intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.
The group currently has thirty-nine members from different countries — South Sudan, DR Congo and Burundi. Luundo Lukambo, 26, is the group’s founder and originates from DR Congo. He has been living as a refugee, with his mother and siblings, since 2016.
“When I arrived at the camp with my…
“There were 60 children suffering from acute malnutrition in this camp when I first started working in 2015 and now there are 17.”
Augustin Rudahinyuka, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one of 15 “nutrition animators” working in Gihembe refugee camp in the north of the tiny East African country of Rwanda.
Through cookery demonstrations and dietary advice, he plays a key role in changing nutritional attitudes and behaviour among refugees.
Augustin and his co-workers are supported by the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) programme.
SBCC, the use of communication to influence knowledge, attitudes, and social norms, is a key component of WFP’s nutrition strategy — and particularly for addressing stunting rates among refugee children.
…
“Digitizing school feeding related data ensures maximum efficiency in WFP’s home-grown school feeding programme,”
By Aurore Ishimwe
The tiny East African country of Burundi is one of the poorest in the world. More than 65 percent of the population lives in poverty and over 50 percent of children aged under 5 are classified as chronically malnourished.
The World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the government of Burundi provides daily nutritious meals and snacks to over 500,000 school children in 703 schools through its home-grown school feeding programme (HGSF).
The government of Burundi has identified the HGSF programme as the largest and most important safety net for vulnerable people in the country and has…
“I can find more ways to generate my own income and buy anything I need from the market.”
By Marwa Awad and Akech Ngang
Many of us do not realize how hard it can be for people living in areas of conflict and humanitarian disasters to lift themselves out of poverty. In some of the most food-insecure places in South Sudan, chronic hurdles of climate change, intercommunal violence, and a lack of basic services have often stood in the way of many South Sudanese pursuing self-reliance.
Aluel Ring Deng, lives in a small village in Twic County in Warrap State. She is a smallholder farmer who has struggled to create a stable life for her family.
Despite her…
Two weeks after Cyclone Eloise hit Mozambique, solidarity, and hope help victims in temporary accommodation centres.
By Yuri Arabadgi de Andrade
It was around 3 AM on 23 January when the rain and the strong wind began. A few minutes later the power supply was cut. Everything was dark. The sound of roofs being torn off the houses and huge trees hitting the ground and was terrifying for the residents of Beira, Mozambique.
“We could see the water levels rising, but it was too late to leave the house. The only thing we could do was pray for the best”…
“The future is looking bright……Now that we know we will be compensated if our crops are damaged, we are much more motivated to pay insurance fees and increase productivity”
The effects of climate change are threatening the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Rwanda. Climatic shocks such as heavy rains, droughts, hail, and destructive winds have damaged crops and reduced food security.
Most recently, two consecutive rainy seasons of above-average rainfall (September-December 2019 short rains and March-May 2020 long rains) led to localized floods and landslides which resulted in 317 deaths and the loss of livelihoods across Rwanda.
The land belonging to the KOAMAGI and KOAMANYA GISHUBI cooperatives is particularly vulnerable to flooding. The cooperatives are situated along the Akanyaru River which straddles the Rwanda-Burundi border and provides fertile…
The personal story of Vincent Ndeke, WFP’s Head of Shipping in Mombasa, Kenya
Story by Martin Karimi
Vincent Ndeke was born in Kenya’s Kitui County east of Nairobi. The 48-year-old father of four works for the World Food Programme (WFP) overseeing shipping at the Port of Mombasa which is one of the largest port operations in the region.
Vincent’s job is complex and requires precision. …
The NGO Solidarité Féminine (Sisterhood) uses cash and a whole lot more to help women in the capital
By Alicia Torbay
Hawa Mohammed Robleh and 200 other women crowd into the Djibouti office of the local Non-Governmental Organization Solidarité Féminine (Sisterhood) to collect a food voucher from the World Food Programme (WFP).
The women fill forms with their name and the size of their families before picking up their voucher from a WFP staff member. While waiting for her turn, she steps out of the noisy hall and starts talking about her life and her children.
“I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager,” she says. …
