How We Help

There’s nothing easy about life in Kabul, but Mirwais Shinwary says he wouldn’t live anywhere else. After fleeing to Pakistan in the 1990s, he jumped at the chance to help rebuild his country and get his hands on some cutting-edge telecom gear as the leader of WFP’s crack IT unit.

Mary Mweetwa thought the future looked grim for her three kids when she tested positive for HIV last year. But she has found that with food assistance and proper treatment she can live with HIV and carry on looking after her family. WFP will highlight this fact at a major AIDS conference in Vienna this week.

Risk is a way of life for traders on western commodity markets. But it’s even more so for farmers like Fatih who bet their livelihoods on every harvest. Cereal banks reduce the risk of disaster by loaning out grain when times are tough. Watch the clip

Bakhtawar Mai turned in a great harvest this year, which means she finally grew enough food to feed her family. This was possible because a little food aid at the right time enabled her to cover her immediate food needs and, at the same time, buy enough seeds for the year ahead.

Mercedes Bohorquez has made panela, the main ingredient in Colombia’s favourite thirst-quencher for as long as she can remember. But, unable to sell her product herself, she remained trapped in poverty. Now, with a helping hand from WFP, she and her fellow “paneleros” are solving that problem.

Since a typhoon destroyed their home last year, Mildred's family has been living on a beach. Their fishing boat damaged and their savings exhausted, they had nowhere to turn. But their fortunes are changing with a programme that takes care of food needs as they rebuild their lives.

As WFP’s food coupon system ensures delivery of two weeks of rice rations, women are always at the front of the line at the 16 fixed distribution points in the Haitian capital. It’s part of a system that ensures the weakest don’t get left behind.

Fatima and her family are among the tide of people displaced by the fighting which broke out in northern Yemen last year. Although she’s in a huge camp for displaced people, Fatima counts herself lucky as she can at least bake bread for her family.

On a cold winter day in the mountains on the western edge of Tajikistan, Rajabgul Rasulova has just had a rare taste of happiness in her life of hardscrabble survival. Thanks to a WFP food distribution, she now has something to put on the table for the family New Year celebration.

The MERET project, launched by WFP and the Ethiopian government in 2003, helps poor farmers manage land better, so that it becomes more productive and does not become desert. Hiwot Gebre-Tsadkan explains how it changed her life.