WFP Expanding Food Distributions to Pakistan Earthquake Survivors

The United Nations World Food Programme today
began expanding its food distributions to mountain villages near the
epicentre of last Saturday's earthquake. Operations are hampered, however,
by severe damage to roads and landslides, with many areas still accessible
only by air.


Trucks loaded with high energy biscuits fanned out in several different
directions from Muzaffarabad in an effort to reach as many people as
possible in villages that have received little or no assistance since the
earthquake struck. Some 25,000 people are feared dead and hundreds of
thousand have been left homeless and destitute.


"We headed south, but after 10 km, the road had gone ? the tarmac was
buckled like a staircase. We got a message through to the villagers and
they came down on foot to collect the food," said Mia Turner, a WFP staff
member travelling with the convoy. "We are going to have to use helicopters
reach most of the people out there."


WFP will be using a fleet of 14 helicopters to support the relief operation
- six more than originally planned. Four are already in the country and
have started airlifting food to earthquake victims in and around the town
of Manshera, some 30 km west of Muzaffarabad. Two heavy-lift helicopters
are now on their way to Pakistan from Malaysia, aboard a giant Antonov-124
cargo plane. They are due to arrive this evening. Four more are due next
week.


Apart from the damage to roads, access is further complicated by the sheer
weight of traffic on those that remain open, causing jams and tailbacks
several kilometres long. WFP is also concerned that falling temperatures in
the mountains will present a serious problem for the hundreds of thousands
of people still without shelter.


"Even the people we have been able to reach have little more than a sheet
of plastic to protect themselves against the elements. Temperatures at
night are plummeting and there are now forecasts of snow," Turner said.


Forty light trucks diverted from WFP's Afghanistan operation to help the
relief effort have been loaded with tents and blankets and are expected to
reach the earthquake zone within the next two days. Other aid agencies and
the Pakistan army have also been putting up tents and some are distributing
food.


WFP trucks carrying food are being dispatched every day from Islamabad to
Muzaffarabad and the surrounding area, a journey taking a minimum of 12
hours. To ensure a continuing supply of biscuits ? vital at this early
stage of relief, when people still lack the means to prepare food ? WFP is
sending another plane carrying medical supplies and biscuits from its
humanitarian depot in Brindisi tomorrow. This is in addition to a flight by
an Airbus of the global express, logistics and mail company, TNT, the same
day, carrying 32 tons of BP5 high energy biscuits, donated by Norway.


WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to
an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs,
including 61 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest
countries. WFP -- We Feed People.


WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can
help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school ? a gift
of hope for a brighter future.


Visit our website: wfp


Video footage available : Contact Jonathan Dumont, WFP/Rome,
Tel
+39-06-6513-3152, Mob. +39-340-224-9140


For more information please contact (email address:
firstname.lastnamewfp):


Brenda Barton, Deputy Director Communications, WFP/Rome,
Tel.
+39-06-65132602, Mob. +39-3472582217


Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Mob. +41-792857304


Trevor Rowe, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-212-9635196, Mob. +1-6468241112,
roweun


Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-75929292, Mob. +44-7968-008474


Amjad Jamal, WFP/Islamabad, Tel +92-51-111937937, Mob. +92-300-8500989


Mia Turner, WFP/Muzaffarabad, Tel +92-300-8552864, Thuraya
+882-1654-200-356


Casey Kauffman, WFPcameraman/Muzaffarabad, Tel +39-348-6099466, Thuraya
+882-165-420-7027


Robin Lodge, WFP/Rome, Tel +39-06-6513-3201, Mob. +39-340-866-2992


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