By Caribbean Medical News Staff
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received €24 million from the Government of Germany to support the provision of food for the several million people affected by the Ebola virus in West Africa. The funds have been disbursed immediately to buy food supplies and other special nutrient dense foods for those in Ebola Treatment Centres.
“With this critical support from Germany, we will support the health response and contribute to the alleviation of the Ebola outbreak, The WFP’s emergency response involves providing food assistance to affected communities so that people don’t have to go out in search of food, and logistics support to organizations and government authorities involved in the medical response,” said WFP Regional Director for West Africa Denise Brown.
Urgent food and other supplies have been airlifted to the Liberia and Sierra Leone and include formulated supplementary food to fight against malnutrition. This superfood will be given to those who are being treated for Ebola as a porridge to ensure good nutrition while being treated.
To date Ebola is now ravaging Sierra Leone with reports of the disease spreading nine times faster than anticipated. It is for this reason that the UN WFP has expanded and expedited its urgent response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The most affected places to receive food assistance include Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the last of which is seeing a spike in rural areas especially.
“This unprecedented crisis is affecting the livelihood of already poor communities. WFP is working with the governments and other partners to prevent this health crisis from becoming a food and nutrition crisis,” said Brown.
Besides food assistance, WFP is providing critical logistics support as well as humanitarian assistance in other critical areas.
