![[Ethiopia] food aid.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20037157.jpg.webp?itok=ZkMsY0Oh "The situation is compounded by inadequate resources")
A UN World Food Programme (WFP) initiative is providing nutritional support to thousands of poor, HIV-affected families in Ethiopia, where hunger is still a major problem more than twenty years after famine killed an estimated one million people.
"The scaling-up and expansion of our HIV/AIDS urban programme will allow WFP to continue working towards improving the nutritional status and quality of life of many thousands of people in Ethiopia, who are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS," said WFP acting country director Abnezer Ngowi.
In terms of a US$9 million agreement, signed in August by WFP, the Addis Ababa HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, and other local agencies and implementing partners, WFP will provide nutritional assistance to 110,000 people in 14 towns across the country, including 54,000 beneficiaries in the capital, Addis Ababa, until December 2007.
Two million people are living with the virus and an estimated 2.6 million children have been orphaned by the pandemic in the last decade. Urban households have been more affected than rural ones.
Dinku Shitaw, 85, who lost her daughter and son-in-law two years ago, is one of the beneficiaries. "I am taking care of these two AIDS-orphaned children with the support of an organisation that gives me wheat, edible oil and schooling materials to the children." The children help their grandmother sell firewood and charcoal to pay the $5 monthly rent for their tiny, one-roomed home.
The organisation assisting Shitaw is the Participatory Community Support Association. "We have given nutritional support worth $200,000 to over 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Our association has been re-elected by WFP to continue this programme [and we] plan to increase the number of benefciaries in the coming months," said the manager, Solomon Tesfaye.
People taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication must have adequate nutrition, and households are given 45kg of wheat, three litres of oil and 9kg of a locally produced fortified blended food supplement every month, allowing caregivers, usually family members, also to benefit.
Ayalnesh Melaku, 33, lost her husband to an AIDS-related illness five years ago and has been on ARVs at Addis Ababa's government-run Black Lion Hospital for the past year. "Without the nutritional support, it would be difficult to start such a heavy medicine," she said. Since she started the ARVs, her CD-4 cell count (which measures the strength of the immune system) has increased from 100 to 408 and her weight has gone up from 40kg to 50kg.
"The scaling-up and expansion of our HIV/AIDS urban programme will allow WFP to continue working towards improving the nutritional status and quality of life of many thousands of people in Ethiopia, who are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS," said WFP acting country director Abnezer Ngowi.
In terms of a US$9 million agreement, signed in August by WFP, the Addis Ababa HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, and other local agencies and implementing partners, WFP will provide nutritional assistance to 110,000 people in 14 towns across the country, including 54,000 beneficiaries in the capital, Addis Ababa, until December 2007.
Two million people are living with the virus and an estimated 2.6 million children have been orphaned by the pandemic in the last decade. Urban households have been more affected than rural ones.
Dinku Shitaw, 85, who lost her daughter and son-in-law two years ago, is one of the beneficiaries. "I am taking care of these two AIDS-orphaned children with the support of an organisation that gives me wheat, edible oil and schooling materials to the children." The children help their grandmother sell firewood and charcoal to pay the $5 monthly rent for their tiny, one-roomed home.
The organisation assisting Shitaw is the Participatory Community Support Association. "We have given nutritional support worth $200,000 to over 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Our association has been re-elected by WFP to continue this programme [and we] plan to increase the number of benefciaries in the coming months," said the manager, Solomon Tesfaye.
People taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication must have adequate nutrition, and households are given 45kg of wheat, three litres of oil and 9kg of a locally produced fortified blended food supplement every month, allowing caregivers, usually family members, also to benefit.
Ayalnesh Melaku, 33, lost her husband to an AIDS-related illness five years ago and has been on ARVs at Addis Ababa's government-run Black Lion Hospital for the past year. "Without the nutritional support, it would be difficult to start such a heavy medicine," she said. Since she started the ARVs, her CD-4 cell count (which measures the strength of the immune system) has increased from 100 to 408 and her weight has gone up from 40kg to 50kg.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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