KATHMANDU, Nepal--To assist nearly 9,000 people adversely affected by skyrocketing food prices, and who are trying to rebuild after their homes and livelihoods were destroyed by the massive floods and landslides that struck western Nepal last fall, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is providing almost 800 metric tons of food for beneficiaries in the districts of Kailali and Kanchanpurmore.
The project is funded by the World Food Programme (WFP) and is being implemented in close collaboration with FINTRAC Inc., a U.S.-based agribusiness, Backward Society Education (BASE), Creation of Creative Society (CCS), local youth clubs, women's user groups, and government agencies.
A total of 8,994 people will directly benefit from this project, while 62,672 people will benefit indirectly. ADRA Nepal will distribute 795 metric tons of food to beneficiaries engaged in income generation and infrastructure improvement activities, during the four-month project, which will be conducted from March 1, to June 30, 2009.
In 2008, ADRA Nepal distributed 682 metric tons of food in the three severely flood-affected districts of Banke, Bardia, and Kailali, mobilizing more than 10,000 community members for reconstruction and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, irrigation canals, houses, and schools.
With 41 percent of their population suffering from undernourishment, and some communities already below emergency food levels, lack of access to food is a chronic problem in the South Asian nation, says the WFP.
Frequent natural disasters, high food prices, and continued civil unrest are all barriers that prevent millions of Nepalese from receiving the food that they so desperately need.
Since its establishment in 1988, ADRA Nepal has implemented more than $25 million in development and relief aid projects. In 2007 alone, it assisted 2.4 million people through 24 projects worth $2.5 million.
More information about ADRA Nepal can be found at www.adranepal.org.
ADRA is a non-governmental organization present in 125 countries providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.
Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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