How Donations are Helping World Food Programme Somalia Provide Relief and Ease Burdens

October 2020

Photo Courtesy of World Food Programme
A retailer delivers food to beneficiary Hani Mohamed’s home in Mogadishu, Somalia, on April 2, 2020. WFP Somalia works with partners to provide food and nutrition to vulnerable populations.

As part of its ongoing collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), Latter-day Saint Charities is helping fund the WFP’s global distribution of critical supplies during COVID-19. This donation helps feed schoolchildren in Somalia who cannot obtain a meal because of pandemic school closures. An additional $2 million donation also bolsters the WFP’s effort to mitigate supply chain disruptions and deliver necessary medical staff and supplies where they are most needed.

“This is why the World Food Programme is stepping up to fill in the gaps—to provide all the things that are needed out there in the field to help people stay alive and keep the economies going as well,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “We’re very grateful because [the Church is] one of our largest nongovernmental partners. We work together in many countries. We’ve talked about many other countries and many of the opportunities of how we can end hunger around the world.”

“[The WFP has] a presence in places where we have no members of the Church, in places like Yemen, Somalia—places that are conflict-ridden,” added Sister Sharon Eubank, president of Latter-day Saint Charities. “The partnership is five or six years old, and it’s one of our most significant partners.” She and Bishop W. Christopher Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently hosted Beasley on Temple Square.

Photo Courtesy of World Food Programme
The United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Panama prepares to dispatch 13 consignments of personal protective equipment items for the WHO. These COVID-19 supplies are on their way to support health care workers in South America. The consignments will be dispatched to 13 countries throughout the region (Bahamas, Belize, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Uruguay).

The WFP is a United Nations agency that operates in more than 80 countries, feeding people caught in areas of conflict and natural disaster. It also works with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

Relieving Suffering in Somalia

The Somalian government closed its schools in April 2020 after the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in the country. Though this was a prudent decision, the closure cut off many schoolchildren from an important opportunity to obtain a meal during the day—a significant setback for a country wrestling with malnutrition. A lack of good food weakens the immune system and increases one’s susceptibility to diseases such as COVID-19.

A Latter-day Saint Charities’ donation is helping WFP Somalia use its e-Shop phone app to ensure that some 35,323 schoolchildren have five months of nutritious food.

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