Royal visit to highlight hunger crisis

Recently appointed United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Goodwill Ambassador, Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, visited Malawi today to highlight the food crisis in that country. Daughter of His Majesty late King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan, Princess Haya visited at the peak of the lean season to spread awareness about the plight of the poor and hungry in countries that "have been overshadowed by other world crises", according to a WFP statement. "Much of the world's attention is focused on major crisis areas, but Malawi experiences food shortages every year - I feel that is it my duty to experience that myself and relay it to as many people and decision makers as I can," said Princess Haya. Nearly five million people in Malawi will need food assistance through to April 2006 and WFP, currently distributing food to more than 1.3 million of those people, "will scale up to 2.4 million people in January". Escalating maize prices, drought, chronic poverty and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS had already triggered worrying malnutrition rates months before the lean season.