WFP supports educational sector

The World Food Programme (WFP) has donated educational materials to the Liberian Ministry of Education to help strengthen its administrative base, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its recent situation report WFP donated a vehicle, computer, printer and other administrative items worth some US $36,000 on 18 March. The deputy education minister for planning said that WFP aid was contributing to the revitalisation of the educational sector in Liberia, OCHA reported. WFP officer in charge, Felix Gomez, said that his organisation and the ministry had a common aim to strengthen education administration to ensure that individuals continue to benefit from the WFP supported community-based school feeding project, OCHA said. The three-year feeding project, which is due to end in late 2003, targets a total of 140,000 people, of whom 132,000 are students and 8,000 teachers and support staff. WFP supports community-based school feeding activities that aim to bolster local initiatives to reopen schools following the 1989-1997 Liberian civil war. The programme, which is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, was initiated and funded by the US government. WFP also operates an emergency school-feeding project in Liberia that has targeted food aid to some 20,000 beneficiaries, most of whom are school-age children in refugee and internally displaced persons camps in Liberia.