DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a generous donation from the Government of Japan totalling US$ 3.3 million to Guinea-Bissau.
"WFP is deeply grateful for this generous donation by the Government of Japan," said Hiro Matsumura, WFP Representative for Guinea Bissau.
"It is a proof of Japan's continued commitment to food security. This timely contribution will help protect thousands of people from being pushed deeper into poverty and hunger", he added.
Mr. Matsumura will officially accept the donation on behalf of WFP at a signing ceremony on Tuesday November 24th 2009 in the offices of Japan's International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Dakar.
This donation will be used to purchase Corn Soya Blend and maize meal, to help feed some 111,000 school children for nine months. In a country where only half of children are enrolled in school, these meals have significantly contributed to improvement in the enrolment and retention rates.
So far this year, contributions from the Government of Japan to WFP have reached US$ 202 million - a record amount, making Japan the third largest donor to WFP so far in 2009.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries.
WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/english/?n=999.
WFP now has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.
For more information please contact:
Louis Hamann, WFP/West Africa, Tel. +221 33 849 65 00 Ext. 2103, Mobile: + 221 77 637 59 64
