The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has contributed 90 tons of food worth an estimated M1.7 Million (USD$196,000) to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for distribution to people affected by drought, floods and crop failure in Lesotho.

A press release from WFP on Friday says, a range of commodities that include white beans, wheat flour, corn flour, vegetable oil, milk powder and sugar was flown into the airport this morning and will now be transported by road to Lesotho.

Almost a billion people go hungry every day and 165 million children under five suffer from malnutrition – a startling fact when you consider there is enough food in the world to feed everyone.

With the G8 summit fast approaching and the UK government tasked with halving the number of people suffering with hunger by 2015, I took a look at how the British Red Cross is tackling three very different causes of hunger, starting with our programme in Lesotho.

Lesotho

Period covered by this Ops Update: 10 December 2012 to 30 April 2013. This update represents a six-month summary of the operation.

Appeal target (current): CHF 1,119,000

Appeal coverage: 32%

Appeal history:

• This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on 15 October, 2012 for CHF 1,119,000 for 9 months to assist 8000 beneficiaries.

• In December 2012, funds amounting to CHF 100,000 was contributed by the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF)

Maseru, Lesotho – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it is signing two grant agreements with the Ministry of Finance of Lesotho totaling US$17 million, to allow Lesotho to expand prevention and treatment of HIV and multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Lesotho has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world, at 24 percent, and the fourth highest estimated TB incidence. The TB-HIV co-infection rates are the fifth highest in the world and multidrug resistant TB is a growing challenge.

New harvests, although reduced, bring some relief to food insecure poor households

KEY MESSAGES

• The end of the lean season ushered in some relief as many poor rural households are now accessing food from their own harvest. Food insecurity outcomes through June are projected to be Minimal (IPC Phase 1) throughout the country as food needs for poor rural households continue to be supplemented with humanitarian assistance.

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 – The World Bank today signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Lesotho in Washington for the new Maternal and Newborn Health Performance-Based Financing Project.

The credit of US$12 million from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), with a grant of US$4 million from the Health Results Innovation Trust Fund, supported by the UK and Norway, will be used to introduce innovative financing for health facilities in Leribe and Quthing districts in the first year, with expansion to other districts in subsequent years.

Severe armyworm infestations likely to impact 2012/13 production

KEY MESSAGES

• As the peak of the lean season continues, many poor households will continue to face Stressed (IPC Phase 2!) acute food insecurity outcomes in March, in the presence of humanitarian assistance.

HASEPHAPO-TAUNYANE, 27 March 2013 (IRIN) - Tsotleho Befole, 24, travelled from the highlands of Lesotho to neighbouring South Africa twice in the past year, searching for work in the mines. Both times it proved fruitless.

"They said I needed a South African ID to get work. I only have a Basotho passport. [But] there is no work in Lesotho. Nothing," he told IRIN.

"The only work is down there," he clarified, pointing to a fish farm at the Katse Dam.

By John Sparrow in Lesotho

Ask Red Cross volunteer Malikhang Matsoakeletse what troubles Lesotho’s foothill villages and she will take you to her clients: the hungry and lonely elderly, the struggling mothers, the orphaned children, those with HIV, and the impoverished grandparents caring for their children’s children.

On the morning we met her, Malikhang’s rounds took us to the home of Mafilipi Nthaha, 56, who cares for her nine-year-old grandson, a bright boy who wants to be a footballer. Who knows, perhaps he will, but tonight he will probably go to bed hungry.