South Sudan: WFP donates €1.2m for food assistance in schools
September 29, 2010 (JUBA) — The UN World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday received a €1.2million contribution from Italian Development Cooperation earmarked to provide urgently needed food assistance for 76,000 school children in Lakes and Eastern Equatoria states of Southern Sudan.
WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, reportedly feeds on more than 90 million people, each year , in more than 70 countries. This year alone, the organization’s emergency operation in Sudan reportedly requires US$864 million and is about 80 percent funded.
The donation, according to a WFP communiqué, will enable the organization to buy 1,600 metric tons of food including cereals, corn-soya blend, vegetable oil, sugar and salt for school meals in the two states.
Levels of food insecurity among people in the region, says WFP, remain high because of conflict and drought. In Southern Sudan, WFP uses school meals not only as a way to keep children, especially girls, in school, but as a way to ensure that hungry children receive basic nutrition each day.
“No child should go to school hungry. This contribution by Italian Development Cooperation will help ensure that 76,000 children receive at least one meal a day for more than seven months when they attend school,” Amer Daoudi, WFP Country Representative to Sudan said in today’s communiqué.
Sudan, further says WFP, remains one of the top priority countries in Africa for Italian Development Cooperation, a major donor to the organization’s school meals programme in South Sudan since 2007.
Currently, for instance, WFP is reportedly assisting 145 schools in Eastern Equatoria and Lakes states, all expected to benefit from the €1.2m donation.
This year alone, WFP plans to reach almost 11 million people, up to 4.6 million people in Darfur, 4.3 million people affected by drought in Southern Sudan and 1.7 million people in the Central and Eastern parts of the country.
(ST)