With a food shortage crisis facing Haiti, the United States and the international community need to take swift action. Myrta Kaulard, the UN World Food Programme director in Haiti, took time yesterday to answer questions about the urgency of the situation.
Text of Q and A with Myrta Kaulard of the World Food Programme (WFP):
What efforts are underway to build up the WFP food stocks in Haiti? What has been the international response to this impending crisis?
Much of WFP's funding in Haiti's comes in response to crises. Three tropical storms and one hurricane ravaged Haiti in 2008, because of these events WFP's Haitian program in 2008-2009 was well funded.
Now, Haiti is facing a critical moment as it approaches another election cycle. In March, WFP food stocks in Haiti will be depleted and it will take at least 4 months to replenish them. This is why I am now urgently engaged in an effort to increase food assistance funding for fiscal year 2009-2010 by approaching multilateral organizations and traditional "friends" of Haiti to increase the food assistance budget. Food assistance will eventually be phased out as the Haitian government takes control of it and as other sectors such as employment, infrastructure, agriculture, and social services develop. As these sectors grow, food assistance remains the most important investment to maintain in order to support continued development. The international response has been very positive but work remains.
What is the status of child feeding programs in Haiti like school feeding?
School feeding programs in Haiti provide over 500,000 children with a balanced meal consisting of rice, beans, oil, fish and some condiments. Many children in Haiti walk 2-3 hours everyday to get to school. There is no doubt among Haitians of the social, economic, and physical importance these meals provide children. Government authorities have progressively begun to take over school feeding but they cannot sustain it yet. If WFP in Haiti does not receive more funding, the school feeding program will have to be stopped in March 2010.
What role can Food for Work projects play in making Haiti become self sufficient?
Almost the entire country of Haiti has been deforested which has led to widespread land degradation and agricultural vulnerability. Farmers, who are mostly women, have not been able to participate in traditional best management practices like terracing the land to prevent mudslides and water runoff. Instead, farmers spend all of their time cultivating and transporting crops to the market. WFP's food for work programs give farmers the opportunity to participate in practices like terracing that dramatically improve water and soil quality today, while buffering against the future effect of storms and hurricanes; events which are increasingly intense in Haiti due to global warming.
Food for Work is entirely geared toward making Haitians self sufficient. After the storms in 2008, agricultural land was unusable. WFP coordinated its efforts to pay farmers with food to clear the land of sand that had been washed onto once rich soil. Farmers would never have been able to afford to take the time to clean up this land without WFP Food for Work programs. This program made it possible for farmers to pick up the pieces after the storm and once again, be self reliant.
Right now, Haiti is experiencing desertification because of massive deforestation. Another Food for Work program focuses on supporting agricultural production and better water management by planting more trees. The key to this has been making trees economical to Haitians. The widespread planting of mango, Benzolive (or Moringa trees, locally called the Miracle tree) and breadfruit trees are examples of this progress and have been possible with Food for Work programs. With the help of WFP, Haitians are planting these trees. Not only do they provide fruit for families to eat, the leaves of breadfruit trees are ground to provide essential nutrients in animal feed. Benzolive tree leaves can be ground and fortified to produce protein rich baby food. The program provides incentives to plant and cultivate trees, improving agricultural systems while independently growing food.
What are some things a person reading this article can do to help fight hunger in Haiti?
There are a number of things someone reading this article can do to help, after all, it only takes $1 to feed four school children a meal! Anyone can donate online at wfp.org or make a donation in someone else's name as a gift on our Wall Against Hunger at http://wall.wfp.org/. Also, freerice.com is a great way to challenge yourself and donate rice.
More media savvy? Make a short video about hunger and submit it to our HungerBytes contest to help spread the word about hunger http://www.wfp.org/hungerbytes. For more information about what you can do to help WFP please visit our website help at http://www.wfp.org/how-to-help/individuals
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