A Syrian woman is growing vegetables in a field. Since 2016, WFP has been supporting vulnerable Syrian families with programmes designed to help them rebuild their livelihoods. Copyright: WFP/Marwa Awad

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$4 million contribution from the State of Kuwait to fund projects that improve the lives of Syrians in need. The projects will benefit some 20,000 people across the country whose lives and livelihoods have been torn apart by years of conflict.

This contribution will allow WFP and its partners to rehabilitate vital community assets in rural areas, which will allow smallholder farmers to produce more of their own food. WFP will also use the funds to provide vocational training to those who are fit to work. Each family of five will receive WFP food rations for six months to cover their food needs during their participation in the programmes.

"This contribution from the State of Kuwait will support WFP in its efforts to help Syrian families recover from the devastating effects of displacement and give them the means to gradually rebuild their lives,” says WFP Country Director and Representative in Syria Corinne Fleischer. “It is vital that families who have lost everything in the war can rebuild their livelihoods and once again become self-sufficient.”

After almost eight years of conflict in Syria, poverty is endemic and many lack the means to rebuild their livelihoods. Some 6.5 million people across the country do not know where their next meal is coming from.

“Kuwait is a committed humanitarian supporter of WFP,” says Director of WFP in the UAE and Representative to the GCC region, Mageed Yahia. “These funds will make a real difference for Syrian families who have lost so much and who continue to suffer as their country struggles to recover.”

Kuwait has been at the forefront of humanitarian support for Syria since the beginning of the crisis. The government has hosted three international humanitarian pledging conferences for Syria, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and co-hosted the 2016 Syria pledging conference in London. Kuwait has donated more than US$139 million to support WFP operations in Syria since 2013.

Since 2016, WFP – in addition to its regular food assistance operations – has been supporting vulnerable Syrian families with programmes designed to help them rebuild their livelihoods. To date, some 250,000 people in 13 of Syria’s 14 governorates have benefited from WFP’s livelihoods programmes. WFP aims to increase its livelihoods activities in 2019 if it can secure the funding to do so.

WFP supports the food needs of three million conflict-affected people in Syria every month, providing them with rations of rice, wheat, vegetable oil, lentils, sugar and salt. Each ration contains enough food to feed a family of five for one month.

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The United Nations World Food Programme - saving lives in emergencies and changing lives for millions through sustainable development. WFP works in more than 80 countries around the world, feeding people caught in conflict and disasters, and laying the foundations for a better future.

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