Life-Saving Food Assistance to Haiti in Crisis
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Summary
The World Food Program expanded food assistance, particularly to pregnant women and children, to assist the people of Haiti, who have been particularly susceptible to the skyrocketing price of food.
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Received $400 from 7 donations from people like:
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More Information About this Project
Project Needs and Beneficiaries
As food prices rise, many of us can give up desserts or meat once or twice a week to save money. For people making less than $1 a day, the choice is much harder. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has been particularly vulnerable to rising food costs. The World Food Program is doing all it can to help the people of Haiti by organizing voucher-based food distribution to the neediest families, expanding programs for pregnant women and continuing school meals into summer vacation.
Activities
WFP distributes food in Haiti’s poorest areas, especially to the most vulnerable groups such as breastfeeding mothers, young children, and approximately 290,000 school children.
Funding Information
Total Funding Received to Date: $400
Remaining Goal to be Funded: $49,600
Total Funding Goal: $50,000
Additional Documentation
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
Resources
Why this Project is Important
Potential Long Term Impact
WFP is working to feed the most vulnerable populations during this crisis, and to mobilize world attention and support to stave off future disasters. WFP also supports local purchase to help farmers support their own communities.
Project Message
“What we see in Haiti is what we’re seeing in operations around the world…A new face of hunger is emerging: even where food is available there are now more and more people who simply cannot afford it.
- Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director
When this Project was Updated
Last Updated
This project was last updated on August 05, 2008.
Date Added to GlobalGiving
This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on June 13, 2008.
Latest Update from the Field
WFP expects to reach 2.3 million in Haiti by the end of the year
By Karen Sendelback - President & CEO, August 05, 2008 07:07 PM
Laurent-Antoine Augustine has been a beneficiary of World Food Program (WFP) assistance since she and her husband tested positive for HIV several years ago. They were both unemployed and relied heavily on the food they received from WFP for survival. Today, Laurent’s husband has recently passed away and she is waiting to enroll in a new WFP program.
"I thank WFP for having provided me, my husband, my son and my brother with pulses [beans], wheat, flour, vegetable oil and sugar," she says. "With the combination of the food and medication, God has carried me through and I still have my life."
Laurent is just one of 800,000 individuals, including 40,000 vulnerable families, who receive food assistance from WFP Haiti. Haiti has been recognized for years as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and the Food and Agriculture Organization has recently reported that Haiti is the country hardest hit by the global food crisis. Three-quarters of Haitians live on less than $2 per day and therefore end up spending an extremely large portion of their incomes on food. As a result, 50 percent of the population suffers from malnutrition. The Haitian population is also extremely vulnerable to food price increases as it imports more than half of its food, including rice - a staple of the Haitian diet.
The most recent program initiated by WFP Haiti to assist this vulnerable population is to provide school meals and take-home rations to 200,000 children over the summer months. These hot meals increase attendance rates in primary schools and, in doing so, prevent kids from joining street gangs or searching for work instead of attending classes.
WFP expects to rapidly expand its beneficiaries to an estimated 2.3 million by the end of the year. “Our food is critical to helping people cope with high prices - a daily burden on people who were already very poor,” said WFP Regional Director Pedro Medrano.
In order to continue to cover Haitian beneficiaries’ needs for 2009, WFP needs further financial support. It is only through generous, dedicated individuals like you that WFP’s critical work in Haiti has been made possible nearly $23.3 million has already been raised by the U.S. alone! Friends of the World Food Program will continue to provide financial assistance from US donors to the World Food Program. Thank you for your support of this life-changing initiative!
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