Over 1m Tsunami victims receive food aid from World Food Program

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 12 Jan 2005 - 10:00 PDT

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Total WFP (World Food Program) Food Aid Delivered to Date - 9,407 metric tons - Total People Receiving Food Aid - 1,057,000

INDONESIA

• Regarding news reports that aid agencies would need permission from Indonesian authorities to work outside the Aceh provincial capital of Banda Aceh and the port of Meulaboh, WFP has not yet received any official notification.

• The UN will respond when formal notification is received of any requirements by authorities, who reportedly said military permission would be required because the safety of aid workers could not be assured.

• Since the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis, WFP has had no direct security incidents in Aceh - neither attacks nor looting of WFP food.

• A total of 48 tons of WFP food were distributed so far this week at the start of a new distribution of a full one-month ration to 160,000 displaced people in camps along the northeast coast of Aceh.

• The new distribution, carried out by WFP partners CARE and World Vision, brought to 300,000 the number of people receiving WFP food. WFP is, however, enhancing its security capabilities in Indonesia.

• US Navy helicopters are airlifting WFP supplies from Banda Aceh to 25,000 out of 130,000 newly identified people in need of food on Aceh's west coast, hardest hit by the tsunami.

• WFP is also feeding people in Banda Aceh and the surrounding area.

• Meanwhile, a joint Disaster Management Centre established by the Indonesian government with the UN held its first meeting in Jakarta at the office of the vice president since it was set up on Monday.

• The centre should ensure that the governments and UN work with the same data on numbers of people hits by the tsunamis.

SRI LANKA

• Yesterday, the WFP Country Director and a team of WFP staff traveled to Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka where WFP is currently assisting more than 170,000 individuals (composed of approximately 65,000 families) in this district.

• While all of people were staying in camps for displaced persons immediately following the tsunami, approximately 17,000 families are now living with friends/relatives and approximately 36,000 families have returned to what is left of their homes.

• Local authorities are registering all of the beneficiaries and tracking their changes, so that WFP food will continue to reach all targeted people; people remaining in the camp are receiving a wet ration, and people who are staying with family/friends or who have returned home are receiving a dry ration.

THE MALDIVES

• WFP met with the Maldives Ministry of Education and UNICEF to discuss distribution of fortified biscuits in the schools. A supplementary school feeding program is expected to start January 25.

• WFP is participating in a review of people's needs in the Maldives which is being overseen by the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team in the country. WFP will contribute data on food availability and food security needs based on the findings of its Vulnerability Assessment Mapping (VAM) mission.

MYANMAR

• WFP has begun distributing food in the Irrawaddy Delta in the western part of the country through its NGO partner the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). The IFRC is giving a 30-day supply of rice, pulses and oil to 3,220 people in an emergency response to most affected people.

• Meanwhile, WFP is set to begin giving the same ration to 5,000 people in the Kaw Thoung region on the southern coast and 10,000 people in the Irrawaddy Delta (for a total of 15,000 people) over a six-month period. This distribution will begin at the end of the week.

• WFP is diverting 108 tons of beans from its development programme in the North Rakhine State to the tsunami victims in the Irrawaddy Delta and purchasing the balance of the food from local markets.

REGIONAL

• WFP today posted a civil-military liaison officer in Thailand's U Taphao military airport to work with other UN staff on the coordination of humanitarian air operations using the aircraft of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

• WFP, working with the UN Joint Logistics Centre and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), will establish the priorities for the deployment of humanitarian aid to victims of the tsunami crisis and forward these needs to the Combined Support Group of the militaries.

• The UN has taken over coordination of the military assets assigned to the humanitarian effort after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced at the January 6 Jakarta donor conference that the "core group" of nations in the tsunami relief campaign was being disbanded.

• Seven flights have left WFP's new Humanitarian Air Hub at the Subang Air Base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since January 7. C-130 transports, flying once or twice a day, have carried a total of 90 tons of fortified biscuits to Banda Aceh since that date.

• Three flights have also left the UN's Humanitarian Response Depot in Brindisi, Italy, since January 7, carrying prefabricated warehouses, fuel tanks and refueling systems bound for Indonesia.

• Three trucks were airlifted from the Asia Emergency Response Facility in Phnom Penh, Cambodia yesterday, bound for Colombo, to help relieve transport shortages in Sri Lanka.

For more information please contact:

Greg Barrow, WFP London. Tel: 020 7592 9292, Mob: 07968 008474,
e-mail: gregory.barrow@wfp.org

Heather Hill, WFP Thailand Mob: +66 1701 9208, Mobile + 662 659 8690
email: heather.hill@wfp.org

Michael Huggins, WFP Indonesia Mob: +62 811 864383, Thuraya: +881 6315 53604;
email: Michael.Huggins@wfp.org

Jordan Dey, WFP Sri Lanka. Tel: + 9411 2586244.
email: jordan.dey@wfp.org

Jonathan Dumont, WFP Sri Lanka Mob: +39 340 224 9140; Thuraya: +882 165 4203516.
email: jonathan.dumont@wfp.org

Peter Smerdon, WFP/Indonesia Tel: + 6221 5734332, Mob: + 62 811 186923.
E-mail: peter.smerdon@wfp.org

Caroline Hurford, WFP Rome. Tel: + 3906 65132330. Mob: + 393481325018

Trevor Rowe, WFP New York. Mob: +1 646 8241112, office: +1 212 963 5196
email: rowe@un.org

Visit our website: www.wfp.org. To access WFP's detailed, up-to-the-minute maps on the tsunami crisis, go to http://www.hewsweb.org.