Rose Mestika
15 June 2008
Addis Abeba — The World Food Program (WFP) on Friday received food assistance worth 112, 000 USD from Egypt government' Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa.
The aid consists of 137 metric tons of wheat flour and 12 metric tons of palm oil, enough to assist 15, 000 people for one month. The handing over ceremony was held at Kolfe Keranio distribution site on Friday June 13, 2008.
The donation will go WFP's food assistance programmes which support households and individuals infected and affected by HIV/AIDS to meet their basic nutritional needs and to help them cope with the impact of the illness.
Speaking on the handing over ceremony, WFP Country Director Mohmed Diab lauded Egypt's contribution to the UN agency's activities in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa-Sudan, Somalia and Niger.
"This contribution once again highlights the Egyptian government's commitment to supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS and to ensuring that the proper nutrition is forthcoming to help improve the health and well-being of people infected and affected by the HIV," Mohammed Diab said.
Egyptian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tarek Ghoneim said on the occasion, the donation was the second that was extended to WFP's Ethiopia program.
In November 2007, the Egyptian government donated commodities valued at 100,000$ to WFP in Ethiopia to support the agency's HIV/AIDS intervention program.
"Hopefully it will not be the last" the Ambassador said.
Aster Bered, a beneficiary of WFP, Urban HIV/AIDS project, told The Daily Monitor said she receives wheat, edible oil, and supplementary food every month.
"I am not capable to survive by myself and feed my children. But now because of WFP food assistance my children are going to school, attend their education properly and I am also in good health," Aster,a womn in her early 40s said.
WFP's Urban HIV/AIDS project is assisting people who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in 14 towns of Ethiopia.
Since the start of the implementation of its HIV/AIDS programme in 2003, it has distributed over 31, 000 metric tones of food to some 150,000 infected and affected people throughout the country, according to available information.
In related news, gunmen killed driver working for the U.N.'s World Food Programme in southern Somalia, according to news reports which cited the humanitarian organisation as saying on Friday.
Hassan Abdi was the third WFP-contracted driver to be killed in the Horn of Africa nation this year, the reports indicated adding he was taking food aid from the capital Mogadishu to Bay and Bakool regions when he was attacked shortly after dawn on Thursday.
"Somalia is one of the most difficult places for humanitarian agencies to operate, and it appears to be getting more dangerous," Reuters quoted Denise Brown, WFP Somalia's deputy country director as saying in a statement.
"We strongly condemn this attack on personnel and trucks delivering life-saving food. Our condolences go to the family."
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