Submitted by crinadmin on
WFP has warned that its efforts to assist more than 700,000 Angolans – mostly young children and returning refugees – will come to a halt unless new donations are received by the end of July. WFP needs at least US$12.6 million to distribute 7,700 metric tons of food aid to targeted Angolan beneficiaries for the remainder of 2006. Donor support for the agency’s relief programme has diminished alarmingly since last year. “The situation has deteriorated to the extent that we will not be able to distribute food from next month, and will have to close down our operation entirely in September unless new contributions are received very soon”, said Sonsoles Ruedas, who is in charge of WFP’s operation in the country. Thirty-year civil war A WFP study conducted late last year in rural areas of southern and eastern Angola indicated that more than 900,000 people still do not get enough food, and that at least 45 percent of children under the age of five are chronically malnourished – a condition that can irreversibly impair learning ability. Angola endured nearly 30 years of civil war, causing immense damage to infrastructure and social services. Healthcare and educational facilities are still non-existent in many areas. Millions of land mines litter the country. WFP launched a new food aid programme in April, aimed at alleviating the suffering of the poorest and thereby supporting post-war reconstruction. Helping the vulnerable It plans to assist more than 700,000 children in primary schools, pregnant and nursing women, and HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and pellagra sufferers. The operation is also designed to support more than 80,000 refugees expected to return home from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. “WFP has assumed the responsibility of trying to ensure that the refugees – who are coming back empty-handed after many years of exile – get enough food before their first harvest,” Ruedas said. “But we’ve had to distribute half-rations to such people since last year.” School feeding WFP currently provides school meals to 220,000 Angolan children, and is planning to increase the caseload by 100,000 by the end of the year - if funding becomes available. The agency is also helping to design a national school-feeding programme to be fully funded and implemented by the Ministry of Education. The Government of Angola is committed to providing US $1.3 million towards school feeding in 2006, and may give more in 2007 and 2008. The plan calls for the government to launch its own programme next year in areas where WFP is not already providing school-feeding, and to eventually provide food for all schools in the country.