WFP delivers life-saving food to a quarter million people in Afghanistan with support from China

“Entire communities across Afghanistan experience despair and hunger,” said Ma Chen Guang, Counsellor of Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan, at a ceremony in Kabul on Thursday. “China will continue to work with the World Food Programme to provide food assistance to hungry Afghan families in need of assistance for survival.”

The contribution from China came at a critical moment when a massive funding shortfall put at risk WFP’s work in Afghanistan. Last year, WFP had to cut 10 million people from assistance and this summer, due to the ongoing funding crisis, 11 million people did not receive emergency food assistance. This included more than 2 million mothers and their children who received no specialized supplementary food to combat malnutrition.

“Afghanistan remains a global hunger hotspot and more than three quarters of all people across the country cannot afford a nutritious diet that keeps them from falling into malnutrition,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, Country Director of WFP Afghanistan. “Families across the country need continued emergency food assistance to get through the winter months.”

Thanks to the contribution from China, WFP was able to procure more than 2,000 metric tons of food, including fortified wheat flour and fortified vegetable oil, yellow split peas and salt which was distributed to more than 35,000 families or nearly 250,000 people across the country.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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