UN agency helps tsunami survivors return to productive life
With tsunami-hit countries in Asia moving into the rebuilding phase, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a series of humanitarian activities, ranging from water pond construction to food-for-work projects, to help hundreds of thousands of survivors return to a productive and independent way of life.
With tsunami-hit countries in Asia moving into the rebuilding phase, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a series of humanitarian activities, ranging from water pond construction to food-for-work projects, to help hundreds of thousands of survivors return to a productive and independent way of life.
“This is where the real work begins,” WFP Deputy Regional Director for Asia Kenro Oshidari said today in Bangkok. “Just because this story has disappeared from television screens, it doesn’t mean that the problem has gone away. In reality, it won’t take weeks or even months, but years for many of these communities to recover.
“The challenges of rebuilding are monumental, but WFP stands ready to play its role for however long it takes,” he added of the 26 December disaster that killed more than 200,000 people and left up to 5 million people in need of basic services, such as food and health care.
In Myanmar WFP is starting food-for-work projects to help people rebuild their communities. Some 7,000 people in the Irrawaddy division are constructing 20 water ponds for crop irrigation, six kilometres of village roads and two wooden bridges. In return, they are getting four months’ supply of rice, cooking oil and beans.
In the southern Kawthaung district, near the Thai border, WFP is giving the same ration to 1,000 people who are rebuilding access roads and rehabilitating sea dykes damaged by the waves.
In Sri Lanka this month, WFP is starting a school feeding programme for 120,000 children in addition to the 165,000 already enrolled before the tsunami. In order to prevent malnutrition WFP will begin distributing corn-soya blended food to 200,000 “vulnerable group” members and to 112,000 mothers and infants. In May or June, WFP will assist 277,000 people to rebuild roads and other local infrastructure.
Also in Sri Lanka, the agency will work with other groups like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help people clear debris, rebuild houses, and resume fishing by providing boats and nets.
In Indonesia general food distribution is giving way to aid targeted to 350,000 primary school children, 55,000 pregnant or lactating mothers, 130,000 children under five, 8,000 orphans and children in day care. WFP will help restoring livelihoods with food-for-work. A recent WFP report found that damage to houses, roads, irrigation and drainage systems constituted half of total tsunami damage. The reconstruction of this infrastructure is “critical to the restoration of livelihoods for the population in the affected areas,” the report says.