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Press contact:
Rachel Wolff
253.394.2214

Statement on World Vision food aid in Haiti

  • World Vision’s food distributions in Haiti have continued uninterrupted
  • Christian relief agency reaching thousands more with recent grants from USAID
  • Fuel prices, poor roads not impeding agency’s food deliveries to most vulnerable
  • World Vision working with governments of Haiti, U.S. to speed process at ports
  • “Notion that food is piled up in warehouses and not reaching those in need is simply not the reality,” explains World Vision’s national director

Washington, DC, July 28, 2008—As Haiti’s poor continue to struggle under higher global food prices, Christian aid agency World Vision has expanded its ongoing emergency food aid distributions thanks to two recent grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Since March 2008, continuous distributions by the Christian humanitarian organization have provided nearly 92,000 vulnerable people with vitamin-fortified food rations supplied by USAID—through its Multi-Year Activity Plan (MYAP) grant and the Single-Year Assistance Program (SYAP) grant. World Vision was awarded a five-year MYAP grant in February and a seven-month SYAP grant in May.

Some 3,200 of these are new beneficiaries who have also been receiving rations from World Vision since July 2, thanks to a new shipment of food from USAID’s emergency Single-Year Assistance Program (SYAP) grant. The SYAP aims to address Haiti’s latest hunger crisis caused by spikes in global food prices. The number of people benefiting from this program will increase dramatically in the coming days now that critical startup activities are complete. Over the term of both grants, more than 650,000 vulnerable people will receive food assistance.
“Thanks to USAID’s continued support and generous donations from individuals around the world, World Vision never stopped distributing food to our beneficiaries—thousands of children, pregnant and lactating mothers and others in rural communities who would be facing critical hunger and malnutrition without it,” said Wesley Charles, World Vision’s national director in Haiti.

“The U.S. government’s move to provide additional emergency food supplies just weeks after the deadly April riots illustrates the commitment of Americans to help the people of Haiti,” said Charles. “We are pleased to partner with USAID and work alongside U.S. and Haitian officials to continually improve delivery of assistance to the most vulnerable people.”

USAID is sending the SYAP food commodities to Haiti in four separate monthly shipments. The first shipment of 4,520 metric tons arrived in Port-au-Prince on May 26.

Meanwhile, World Vision is working with Haitian and U.S. authorities to improve the flow of shipments through the infrastructure in Haiti. World Vision has been able to continue food distributions without interruptions by using carryover stock to continue feeding its most vulnerable beneficiaries.

– END –

World Vision staff in Haiti and Washington, DC, are available for interviews. Please contact Rachel Wolff at 253.394.2214 or rwolff@worldvision.org.

Notes to Editor:

Key elements of World Vision’s food aid activities:

  • World Vision’s food distributions in Haiti have continued uninterrupted in 2008, even as food and fuel prices spiked in April.
  • USAID is a valued partner to World Vision in its work to feed the hungry and alleviate poverty in Haiti and around the world.
  • Neither fuel prices nor poor roads have impeded the agency’s efforts to deliver rations to its food aid beneficiaries.
  • The hard-hit countryside is where World Vision has been focusing the bulk of its food distributions in Haiti throughout 2008.
  • Food distributions are also currently underway in areas for which World Vision recently assumed responsibility. Necessary transition activities—including securing adequate warehouse space, staff recruitment and training, identifying implementing partners, agreeing on targeting criteria with local authorities, and beneficiary registration and verification process—were completed in a timely fashion.

Details of SYAP-funded activities:

  • Since July 2, World Vision has been implementing an integrated USAID Title II-funded emergency response to the most recent food crisis in Haiti, triggered by global food price increases.
  • The grant will provide an emergency food aid response to nearly 30,000 food insecure households, or about 150,000 beneficiaries, in Haiti’s North Region; Central Plateau, including the Artibonite Valley; and the island of La Gonāve.
  • This US Government-funded response was prompted by community-based trigger mechanisms and a rapid food assessment that indicated household food stocks were depleted, families were eating their seed stock, and, because of rapidly rising food prices, food-insecure households were even more marginalized than usual.
  • This Single-Year Activity Plan (SYAP) emergency activities complement World Vision’s ongoing USAID Title II-funded Multi-Year Activity Plan (MYAP) development activities and the organization’s privately funded activities.

Details of MYAP-funded activities:

  • USAID’s Title II-funded Multi-Year Acitivity Plan (MYAP) is a five-year development program (2008 - 2012) whose goal is to reduce food insecurity in vulnerable regions of Haiti through integrated activities in Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) and Agriculture.
  • The program targets 540,000 beneficiaries over the five-year period. Beneficiaries consist of children 6 to 23 months old; malnourished children 24 to 59 months old; pregnant and lactating women; farmers groups/associations, lead farmers and community-based organizations.

World Vision’s work in Haiti:

  • With a longtime presence in Haiti, World Vision has been providing food aid continuously to vulnerable children and adults since 2001, through grants from USAID and private matching funds.
  • World Vision has long-term development programs in 19 locations across the country where more than 52,000 sponsored children and their communities are benefiting from programs in health and hygiene, education, sustainable agriculture, clean water and HIV prevention and AIDS care programs.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press.
 

Who Is World Vision?

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice..



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