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| Thursday, 7 March 2002 |
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World Food Program's (WFP) Country Director for Sri Lanka Jeff Taft-Dick yesterday appealed to the international community to donate towards the WFP to feed 77,000 victims of North East strife presently living in Government Welfare Centres. About 15,000 tons of food is required this year but only 2,500 tons have been received from donors. This 2,500 tons will also reach by late April or early May and the stock of 2,000 mt which arrived last month is insufficient to feed 77,000 persons, Taft-Dick said. The Government stepped in for assistance but its financial resources were not adequate to provide food rations to the vulnerable groups, he said. The residents of the welfare centres, who were displaced by fighting in the North and East, have been deprived of the WFP food rations as donor support has fallen off sharply, he said. "The food pipeline has nearly dried up. For the last three months, the inmates received very little food, if any. This is causing great hardship to the most vulnerable members of the centres since they have few alternative sources of food or income with which to purchase it," Taft-Dick said. He appealed to donors for support, saying, "At this point, the people who have suffered the most in Sri Lanka need encouragement that there will be a brighter future. We must not let hunger become an obstacle in the road to peace in Sri Lanka." WFP which has been assisting internally displaced people in welfare centres since 1992, was scheduled to start a new phase of assistance in January 2002 for a period of three years, but the operation has been frozen due to lack of donations. WFP needs fresh donations in order to institute the work schemes, job training and resettlement into permanent homes for the conflict affected people in a move to give them self-reliance and a sense of purpose after years of enforced inactivity, Mr. Taft-Dick said. |
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