More funding needed to support financially poor persons
IN January, the World Food Programme (WFP) completed the lean season assistance (LSA) inception meetings, beneficiary registration, data clean-up, and commenced the 2023/24 LSA distribution cycle.
In January, food assistance reached 125 683 individuals in Buhera, Mangwe, Chivi, and Mwenezi districts.
In collaboration with the Health and Child Care ministry, banners and posters promoting cholera behaviour change were developed as a preventive measure against the spread of cholera during food distributions.
Additional guidance on cholera mitigation measures was also developed in consultation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and distributed to field offices, co-operating partners, and staff, with a focus on cholera prevention at food distribution points and measures to be taken in the advent of suspected cholera cases.
WFP field teams provided technical assistance through inception trainings to social development officers and enumerators from the department of social development as well as district development committee members in Umguza, Masvingo, Kariba, Mt Darwin and Bikita.
The urban cash assistance programme reached 25 414 people in Mzilikazi and Chiredzi with cash disbursements of US$13 per person.
Nutrition cash top-ups of US$5 per person per month were also provided to pregnant and breastfeeding women (565), children under 5 years (2,680), adolescent girls (3,617) and chronically ill persons (514) in the same domains.
In January, financial service providers participated in training sessions focused on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, and community feedback mechanisms.
This training is an integral part of the WFP onboarding process for the implementation of the urban cash assistance programme in new domains.
WFP held inception meetings in three domains (Chiredzi, Epworth, Chinhoyi), receiving support from the United States Agency for International Development to kickstart the second phase of the urban resilience programme that will reach 2 820 households with skills and start-up kits for different value chains.