Caracas (EFE).- The World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Wednesday that it will halve its project in Venezuela by 2025, as “funding is not sufficient.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It has been a difficult decision that we have made after exploring and trying many options. WFP will not be able to continue with the school meals program in the states of Trujillo, Yaracuy, Barinas, Anzo\u00e1tegui, and Monagas,” said Luc\u00eda Ruz, associate of the United Nations program, in a video published on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WFP’s Communication and Partnerships Officer in Venezuela, Marianela Gonz\u00e1lez, explained that “global funding challenges jeopardize humanitarian and development programs worldwide” and the South American country “is no exception.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We came for the first time in 2022 (to Arismendi, in Barinas state) to identify and map the schools. We kept coming every two months nonstop for three years, reaching more and more schools, until today,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gonz\u00e1lez indicated that during those three years, food had been an incentive for children to go to school, with the support of their representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Today we leave, but we hope that these opportunities remain,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February 2023, the WFP approved the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan for Venezuela for 573 million dollars to strengthen school feeding, according to the Permanent Representation of the Caribbean country to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project also includes food assistance for people in situations of greatest vulnerability, support in climate risk management, strengthening the resilience and infrastructure of food systems, as well as the capacities of organizations and institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to its website, the objective was to support more than one million people with food assistance by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Apr. 19, 2021, Venezuela and the WFP signed a cooperation agreement to provide nutritious school meals to vulnerable children and educational staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June, the WFP reported that it had distributed food to over 7,000 people in a municipality in the Venezuelan state of Apure (west of the country, bordering Colombia) affected by heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WFP also communicated on Instagram that it supported over 200 people in temporary shelters with food and supplied polypropylene woven bags to Civil Protection to contain rising rivers. EFE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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