The United Nations World Food Programme
As the food assistance arm of the United Nations, WFP uses its food deliveries to:

1. Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies
2. Prevent acute hunger and invest in disaster preparedness and mitigation measures
3. Restore and re-build lives and livelihoods in post-conflict, post disaster or transition situations
4. Reduce chronic hunger and under nutrition
5. Strengthen the capacities of countries to reduce hunger.

As the UN’s logistics lead, WFP also provides the support necessary to transport food assistance and other vital humanitarian supplies immediately to people affected by drought, floods, cyclones, civil wars and other disasters. WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry.

In Rwanda, WFP assists through two programmes:
Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation
This project provides food assistance to refugees from the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, Burundi and spontaneous Rwandan returnees. Foodrations are also provided to families through the participation of onefamily member in asset creation activities in the most food insecureareas such as land terracing, creation of dams for rain waterharvesting, tree planting and the construction and rehabilitation ofhousing and secondary roads.

WFP also supports moderately malnourished children under five andpregnant and nursing women through its supplementary feeding programme.Assistance is also provided to severely malnourished children underfive admitted into therapeutic feeding programmes together with theircaretakers.

To increase sustainability, WFP in collaboration withthe Ministry of Health (MINISANTE) will provide rabbits to healthcenters to increase access to animal protein by mothers and childrenattending the supplementary feeding programme. Training in kitchengardens, nutrition and reproductive health will also be done incollaboration with UNFPA and Rwanda Flora to empower 100 women andtheir communities at the grass-root level. Other activities includetraining social workers at the nutrition center on data collection, useof anthropometric tools, good nutrition and nutrition counseling andensuring all registers used to collect data on children and mothersattending the supplementary feeding programme are standardized. 
To ensure improved adherence and success of the Anti RetroviralTreatment (ART), WFP provides corn-soya blend (CSB), oil and sugar, tobe served as a porridge for people receiving ART treatment. Theporridge, which boosts calorific intake, is given to people receivingART during the first six months of treatment.
This operation targeted 248,500 beneficiaries for food assistance in 2008.

Development Project - “Support to basic education”
Every school day, a hot lunch of maize and beans is provided to 300,000primary school children in 300 schools in the most food-insecure areas.The school feeding programme aims at improving school attendance andretention of students (including orphans and other vulnerable children)in WFP assisted schools. WFP is also working to strengthen the hand ofthe government in managing school feeding programmes at national,provincial and district levels.
In support to the Vision 2020 Umurenge (a project by the Ministry ofLocal Government aimed at assisting 30 of the poorest sectorsrigorously implement vision 2020 targets beginning with growth andpoverty reduction), WFP provided 25 pregnant heifers, pigs and rabbitsto 25 WFP-assisted schools to supplement the school canteen. Pilotschool gardens will also be established in seven WFP-assisted schoolsin collaboration with FAO. The produce will be used to help the schoolfeeding programme become self-sustaining.

Exchange visits are also organized among WFP-assisted model schools andneighboring schools to share experiences and knowledge and enhance goodpractices in school canteen management.
WFP will also assist the government in policy development, planning,implementation, monitoring and evaluation and resource management ofschool feeding at national and district levels.

WFP will hand over school feeding responsibilities gradually to the government from 2009 and plan to phase out in 2012.
For more information on different activities, please read through linksbelow on 2008 WFP Rwanda fact sheets, faces facts and figures and ourbi-annual and annual operations bulletin.

Contacts
United Nations World Food Programme
Sonarwa Compound
ex, Trafipro, Kicukiro
Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: 250 587611-15
Fax: 250 587620
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Information Focal point

Ahmed Zakaria
Deputy Country Director
Direct:   +250 08186244
Mobile: +250 0830 3561
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Soraya Franco
Programme Officer (Reports)
Tel: +250 03763675
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Global Contact
http://www.wfp.org

Peter Smerdon
Africa Spokesman/WFP
+ 254 733 528 911
Tel:   +254
Mob: +254
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