Tbilisi - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$100,000 donation from Japan to support the agency's relief and recovery operations in Georgia, including providing food assistance to some 8,000 of the most vulnerable people in the country.
WFP Georgia Country Director Lola Castro personally thanked the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Georgia H.E. Tadahiro Abe during his visit today to the soup kitchen of the CARITAS House Georgia, where WFP is providing assistance.
The soup kitchen in Tbilisi is one of 80 institutions all over the country where the Japanese donation will make a difference. WFP has been collaborating with CARITAS and has provided assistance to 300 beneficiaries registered in this institution.
"We are grateful for Japan's continuing support to WFP operations in Georgia," said Castro. "Thanks to this donation we will continue our relief food assistance to those most in need and will enable poor rural households to become more self-reliant."
Japan's contribution of US$100,000 has been used to purchase 180 metric tons of wheat flour, which arrived in the country in August 2007 and is being distributed through relief and recovery activities throughout Georgia.
Through its institutional assistance, WFP is reaching 8,000 people who have limited or no potential for self-reliance, such as destitute children, elderly persons and members of large families.
Japan, one of WFP's major donors for operations in Georgia, has contributed 18,400 tons of food commodities valued at approximately US$8 million since 1993, when WFP launched its programmes in the country.
Since that date, the agency has mobilized 197,000 tons of food to assist the most vulnerable groups in the country. In 2006, WFP provided food assistance to over 238,000 people, delivering 10,660 tons of various commodities.
Major donors to WFP's current two-year US$15 million operation in Georgia include: Canada (US$657,900), Poland (US$300,000), National Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases/ Global Fund (US$198,800), Japan (US$100,000), Lithuania (US$30,000) and multilateral funds (US$2.8 million).
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: on average, each year, we give food to 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP - We Feed People.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Lola Castro, Country Director, WFP/Tblisi, Tel. +995-32- 253667/8/9
Yulon Tsilosani, WFP/Tblisi, Tel. +995-32- 253667/8/9