care Prof:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has todaylaunched a major airlift, using helicopters to boost its ongoing reliefoperation and bring desperately needed food to individuals cut off by thedevastating floods in northern Pakistan.
The Pakistan government has offered WFP the use of six helicopters totransport food to tens of thousands of hungry and desperate men and women inisolated communities across the Swat Valley.
A WFP team has been in the Swat Valley identifying safe locations for thehelicopters to land. WFP and its international and national NGO partnerswill carry out distributions of ready-to-eat foods for infants and youngchildren, high energy biscuits and wheat flour, to WFP-identifiedbeneficiaries.
The very first three missions to the town of Kalam took place on Thursdaymorning, carrying a total of 7 metric tons of food – sufficient to feed2,500 people for one week.
“In this scene of devastation, with roads cut and bridges washed away,these helicopters are literally life-savers as they’re the only way to getvital food supplies to several thousands of hungry and desperate men and women,” saidWFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.
WFP started food distributions on Sunday in the worst-affected locations ofPeshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera and by Wednesday evening hadprovided rations for nearly 155,000 individuals.
WFP is currently conducting food desires assessments in 5 of theworst-hit locations, and will move into additional areas as they becomeaccessible. Initial indications are that around 1.8 million people across theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province are in require of food help.
WFP could be the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million folks in a lot more than70 countries.
Source:
WFP