WFP food aid for HIV/AIDS-affected people

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) will provide enriched food rations to HIV/AIDS infected or affected people from July, to help them resist opportunistic diseases, the agency's representative in the Central African Republic (CAR), David Bulman, told PlusNews on Wednesday. Bulman said the agency met on Wednesday with government officials, representatives of NGOs and other experts dealing with HIV/AIDS in the country to "ask them in what way food can be best used in support of HIV-affected people". He said the WFP food project targeted 12,000 people across the country, who had already been identified by NGOs providing them with medical and social aid. The project is expected to last 15 months, and will benefit those who are infected, orphaned or widowed by HIV/AIDS. "People who are infected by HIV/AIDS need some significant nutritional support in order to fight all the diseases that come along with AIDS," he said. A WFP nutritionist, Willy Mpoy, told PlusNews on Wednesday that the food rations would comprise maize meal, corn-soya blend flour enriched with vitamins, beans, oil, sugar and salt. "The ration will be much richer than what people normally eat," he said. Cassava is the country's staple food. According to a HIV/AIDS mapping carried out by the Institut Pasteur in December 2002, 14.8 percent of CAR nationals were HIV-positive. Bulman said that many HIV/AIDS patients spent a lot money fighting opportunistic diseases to the extent that they ended up lacking money for food. He added that the WFP food would also contribute to the eradication of stigma against HIV-infected people. "Patients will be bringing rations home and this will give them more value in the community," he said.