ROME (AP)--A U.N. food agency appealed Friday for at least $10 million to distribute food to more than 1 million Cambodians until July, and warned the food situation there is likely to worsen.
The Rome-based World Food Program warned of the 1.1 million Cambodians in need, more than 700,000 people, mostly children, HIV positive people or AIDS and TB patients won't receive essential food by the start of next month. The agency said it needs the funds to buy 18,000 metric tons of food aid until July.
"The money is now running out," said James Morris, the head of the world's largest humanitarian agency. "Cambodia is one of the world's poorest countries, and these people rely on WFP's help to keep them coming to school and getting HIV and TB treatment," he said.
The agency said it was forced to progressively reduce food rations and delay distribution to needy Cambodians since last October, due to a funding shortage.
Food aid is an incentive to draw patients to health posts and clinics where they also receive a full course of treatment, the agency said. Those who don't complete the treatment may become incubators for new types of TB, whose treatment can cost up to 100 times the original medication.
According to the 2006 Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Cambodia is one of the 12 'hunger hot spot' countries listed as "extremely alarming," the agency said.
The Rome-based World Food Program warned of the 1.1 million Cambodians in need, more than 700,000 people, mostly children, HIV positive people or AIDS and TB patients won't receive essential food by the start of next month. The agency said it needs the funds to buy 18,000 metric tons of food aid until July.
"The money is now running out," said James Morris, the head of the world's largest humanitarian agency. "Cambodia is one of the world's poorest countries, and these people rely on WFP's help to keep them coming to school and getting HIV and TB treatment," he said.
The agency said it was forced to progressively reduce food rations and delay distribution to needy Cambodians since last October, due to a funding shortage.
Food aid is an incentive to draw patients to health posts and clinics where they also receive a full course of treatment, the agency said. Those who don't complete the treatment may become incubators for new types of TB, whose treatment can cost up to 100 times the original medication.
According to the 2006 Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Cambodia is one of the 12 'hunger hot spot' countries listed as "extremely alarming," the agency said.
1 comment:
I thought Hungary was a country until I visit rural Cambodia.
20i07
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