SYRIA / HOMS FOOD AID

The World Food Programme (WFP) delivered a month supply of food Wednesday (12 Feb) for 2,500 people in the Old City of Homs. WFP

 

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:08
• Production Date: 13 February 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: NUTRITION; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: U140213d

Description

STORY: SYRIA / HOMS FOOD AID
TRT: 1:08
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 12 FEBRUARY 2014, HOMS SYRIA

SHOTLIST: ***Please note mild pixilation as received***

1. Various shots, WFP food distribution
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director,
World Food Program (WFP) Syria :
“We managed to get food assistance in to old Homs to feed 2,500 people for a month. Is it enough? We don’t believe it, but it is something. It certainly is, is a major step forward, for people who are living in unbelievable levels of depravation.”
3. Various shots, offloading WFP food

Storyline

The World Food Programme (WFP) delivered a month supply of food Wednesday (12 Feb) for 2,500 people in the Old City of Homs.

It was also agreed that no more trucks would be used to deliver the food, so the WFP’s logistics team brought in trailers that they hooked up to armoured SUVS and towed in to the Old City of Homs.

The WFP says that people coming out are very weak and thin and signs of malnutrition are very obvious. Many people said they have not eaten bread in over five months and were living off of leaves and grass and olives, basically whatever they could find.

There is almost no food left inside the Old City except for some small amounts of bulgur, which is infested with insects. Reports indicate that the situation for people trapped inside the Old City is extremely desperate and dire.

Aid was also delivered to Bloudan in Rural Damascus with food and medicines for 5,000 people, including for people with chronic diseases, in the last two days. Bloudan is only 45 km from Damascus, but it is in a hard-to-reach area because of insecurity.

The humanitarian team reported that it took four hours to travel the last 15 kilometres, and more than 20 checkpoints had to be negotiated.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than 1,370 people have so far been evacuated from the Old City of Homs in Syria since last Friday.