Life-Saving Food Assistance to Haiti in Crisis

Nine-year-old Angelica Richard’s favorite part of the school day isn’t recess. Angelica is one of over 400,000 Haitian schoolchildren benefiting from WFP’s School Meals Program, and the serving of rice and beans she gets at lunchtime is the only thing she’ll eat until the same time tomorrow. “This is my only meal of the day,” she says, “Sometimes I feel weak in the morning and can’t wait till lunchtime.”

Haiti is one of the most chronically distressed nations on the globe, suffering from centuries of corrupt and unorganized leadership, devastating natural disasters, and severe deforestation. 76 percent of the population lives on less than $2/day, and 56% on less than $1. An alarming 46 percent of Haitians are undernourished, particularly women and children.

In addition to its extensive School Meals outreach, WFP has food for work, maternal and child health, and HIV/AIDS programs in place across Haiti. WFP is also actively involved in assisting hurricane-affected populations after four storms devastated the island nation in 2008. Last year, WFP’s programs benefited 2.3 million Haitians – more than one quarter of the population.

Unfortunately, a new hurricane season is looming, and Haiti remains in dire need of more assistance. It is through the generous donations of caring people like you that WFP can expand its operations in Haiti, and reach out a helping hand to students like Angelica and their families. Thank you for your support!

The people of Haiti are still in need of critical support months after several hurricanes and tropical storms struck the country. The succession of storms Fay, Hannah, Ike, and Gustav destroyed vast portions of arable land as well as important food reserves, leaving families without access to food or land to grow it.

The entire harvest of the current agricultural season has been either lost or severely damaged and nearly all of Haiti’s agricultural land was destroyed, as well as most of its roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The destruction of agricultural land is of special concern because many families can no longer grow food to feed themselves, leaving their survival dependent on the help of the World Food Program.

Haiti ranks 146th out of 177 countries according to the United Nations Human Development Index; 76 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day, and 46 percent of the population is undernourished. Rampant cases of life-threatening diseases like HIV and Tuberculosis only add to the suffering endured by many hungry families.

In response to the severe damage caused by the hurricanes in 2008, the World Food Program (WFP) has aimed to reduce undernutrition through targeted general food distributions, School Meals programs, supplementary feeding programs and food-for-work activities.

Through its operations, WFP continues to implement the largest School Meals program in Haiti, providing daily meals to more than 400,000 children, in 850 primary schools. The World Food Program’s operations in Haiti also provide support to anemic mothers and underweight children under five years of age, assist people living with HIV and AIDS and those suffering from tuberculosis.

Many families in Haiti continue to struggle for survival and depend on the World Food Program for food and a hope at regaining their livelihoods. WFP’s operations still require considerable financial assistance to adequately serve all those in need. It is individuals like you, with the desire to help millions of families affected by natural disasters, who make their hope for survival possible. Thank you.

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!