5 Feb 2013

SYRIA / HUMANITARIAN AID

In Syria, the World Food Programme (WFP) and and its partner the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) coordinate food convoys with all parties on the ground to ensure the safe passage of food across the conflict lines and its distribution to vulnerable families. WFP is scaling up its operations to reach 2.5 million people inside Syria in the coming months. WFP

Posted at: February 5, 2013 11:38 am

Duration: 02:56

Available in: SD

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STORY: SYRIA / HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 2.56
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 1 FEBRUARY 2013, HOMS, SYRIA / 29-31 JANUARY 2013, AL-HASSAKEH, SYRIA

SHOTLIST:

1 FEBRUARY 2013, HOMS, SYRIA

1. Various shots, destruction and street scenes in Baba Amr neighbourhood

31 JANUARY 2013, AL-SHADAI, AL-HASSAKEH, SYRIA

2. Various shots, WFP staff negotiating access to opposition control area with local leaders 
3. Various shots, WFP car entering opposition controlled area
4. Various shots, WFP food distribution in opposition controlled Al-Shadadi
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Afraa Nouh, WFP Syria:
"We are now in Adla village, located in the Shaddadi region. The World Food Programme  in cooperation with local counterparts, tribal sheikhs and others in the region, have managed to reach this area. It was previously affected by drought and is currently affected by the current insecurity in this country. Thankfully, we have succeeded in providing WFP's food assistance."
6. Various shots, WFP food distribution
 
29 JANUARY 2013, AL-SHADAI, AL-HASSAKEH, SYRIA

7. Various shots, night shots of Al-Hassakeh
8. Various shots, displaced extended family from Deir Ezzor living in a 2 room apartment.
9. Various shots, child sleeping in a closet  
10. Various shots, children sleeping on the floor

STORYLINE:

As the UN today (5 February) warned that a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis in Syria continues to deepen, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) are coordinating food convoys with all parties on the ground to ensure the safe passage of food across the conflict lines and its distribution to vulnerable families.

WFP today said it is scaling up its operations to reach 2.5 million people inside Syria in the coming months.

Dispatching food inside Syria has been increasingly challenging in recent months, with growing insecurity, and truck drivers are at times reluctant to drive on some roads and to deliver food assistance to certain risky areas.

Some areas, like the old city in Homs and some parts of North Aleppo close to the Turkish border, remain unreachable due to heavy fighting and road insecurity.

But WFP does reach both opposition- and government-controlled areas in Syria. On average 40 to 45 percent of the areas that the UN food agency has been reaching are opposition-controlled.

WFP staff coordinates with SARC volunteers to take advantage of brief lulls in fighting to send food to trapped civilians.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Afraa Nouh, WFP Syria:
"We are now in Adla village, located in the Shaddadi region. The World Food Programme in cooperation with local counterparts, tribal sheikhs and others in the region, have managed to reach this area. It was previously affected by drought and is currently affected by the current insecurity in this country. Thankfully, we have succeeded in providing WFP's food assistance."

In February, WFP is increasing the number of people it plans to reach from 1.5 million to 1.75 million people and is gradually building its capacity to reach two million people in March and 2.5 million vulnerable Syrians by April.

The food basket will include eight commodities – rice, bulgur, pasta, vegetable oil, lentils, salt, sugar and canned pulses – to be complemented by bread or wheat flour, providing a total of 1,700 kilocalories.

This extended family of 45 (25 of them children) receive nine food baskets a month from WFP, one for every five people, but the children still wake up every day at 3am to queue for bread.

To address the severe shortage of bread and fuel in the country, the Government of Syria has approved WFP's request to import fuel and wheat flour for humanitarian purposes. WFP will import up to 2.5 million litres of fuel per month to transport humanitarian supplies to needy families. The first consignment (almost 39,000 litres) arrived in Syria from Lebanon in January.