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Zimbabwe has received a donation of food worth USD$11.2 million from the USAID through the World Food Program (WFP).
The donation is meant to assist about 2.7million food insecure people from January to March this year.
The donation comes as the country is going through an El Nino induced draught which will likely reduce the production output this year and increase food insecurity.
Addressing journalists in Harare today, WFP Zimbabwe representative and Country Director, Francesca Erdelmann, listed the food packages bought by the USAID relief fund adding that vulnerable communities will receive the food stuffs for a three month period starting from this month.
“The assistance we are acknowledging today, which includes cereals, pulses and fortified vegetable oil, is an important contribution to help the most vulnerable people in rural areas to meet their nutritional needs. The USAID assistance will cover close to 230 000 of the 265 000 targeted by WFP people over the coming months,” she said.
Addressing concern on whether political affiliation won’t affect the distribution of the food, Erderlmann assured journalists that all those in need would receive the assistance regardless of political affiliation.
Zimgold Cooking Oil To Be Given Freely To Vulnerable Communities
“I don’t think politics will influence our work. We will try to generously share the donation to everyone without favor. It’s not just the political issue even the gender issue, we will try to ensure that there is gender balance when we reach to the vulnerable communities,” she said.
Asked about how they are going to ensure the safety of the recipients from Cholera during food distribution, Erdelmann said, “We have mechanisms which will ensure that we minimize the number of people who receive the donation so that we curb the spread of cholera. I think in the past, when we had COVID-19 we managed the situation and that’s the same principle we are going to use to avoid the spread of Cholera.”
WFP food Relief packages will be distributed to people in drought-prone districts like Mwenezi, Mangwe, Chivi, and Buhera and each person will freely receive 8,5kg’s of grains, 1.7kg’s of pulses, and 0.6kg’s of oil during each distribution.
