A million Cambodians face hunger, says UN agency

A million Cambodians face hunger, says UN agency

By Dan Poynton

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says it is in desperate
need of $10 million to provide 1.1 million Cambodians with food until
July.

Cambodia is one of the 12 "hunger hotspot" countries listed as
"extremely alarming" in the 2006 Global Hunger Index of the
International Food Policy Research Institute.

With nearly 35 percent of its people living below the poverty line,
Cambodia is classified as a least developed and low-income,
food-deficit country. It ranks 129th out of 177 countries in the 2006
UN Development Program Human Development Index.

In a January 21 statement WFP said if money is not received soon,
700,000 Cambodians - mostly children and HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
patients - will start going without essential sustenance.

WFP says the situation is likely to worsen unless it gets millions of
dollars in donations, as donor support for WFP in Cambodia has
diminished alarmingly since 2005.

"Cambodia is one of the world's poorest countries, and these people
rely on the WFP's help to keep them coming to school and getting HIV
and TB treatment," WFP Executive Director James Morris said in the
statement from New York.

WFP has already had to cut the numbers of those receiving aid. Morris
said a lack of new donations could force some 650,000 children on
school feeding programs, as well as 70,000 people affected by HIV/AIDS
and 18,000 TB patients, to go without food.

"Hundreds of thousands of children in Cambodia count on the nutritious
meal provided to them by the WFP," WFP Cambodia Country Director Thomas
Keusters said in the statement.

"We want to restore this... assistance for children, for the very sick,
and for the desperately poor, but we can only do this with the
immediate... support of the international community."

WFP told the Voice of America (VOA) that if the WFP program is
eliminated in schools, parents would probably take their children from
school and send them out to work to get the money their families need
to feed them, the VOA website stated.

By keeping the program going both the children's minds and bodies would
continue to be fed.

"Food and nutrition are an essential part of the package of care for
people receiving treatment for HIV and TB," Peter Piot, joint executive
director of the UN Program on HIV/AIDS, said in the WFP statement.
"Ration cuts jeopardize the effectiveness of these critical
interventions."

WFP said many TB and HIV patients continue coming to WFP health posts
to receive a full course of treatment because of the food aid provided.

This incentive is particularly important in combating TB, because
drug-resistant variants of the disease develop among patients who do
not complete their treatment.

Treatment of resistant strains of TB can cost up to 100 times more than
ordinary strains.

A funding shortage since October 2006 has forced WFP to progressively
reduce rations, and they now need at least $10 million to distribute
some 18,000 tons of food to 1.1 million Cambodians until July 2007.

The Post tried to talk to WFP in Phnom Penh, but they were on their
annual "retreat" in Sihanoukville and were unavailable for comment.


Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 02, January 26 - February 8, 2007

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