WFP feeding programme launched for Bam survivors

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched a three-month emergency operation on Friday to feed survivors of the earthquake that razed the city of Bam. Following a WFP assessment, there are about 100,000 people in need of food aid in Bam and the surrounding area. WFP's emergency aid package, worth US $2.9 million, will ensure that each person receives a daily ration of bread, rice, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar, nutritional biscuits and salt. The operation is part of the UN Flash Appeal that was launched Thursday, jointly with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). "Since this country has assisted many refugees over the years, it is gratifying for WFP to be able to assist the people of Iran through this crisis," said Marius de Gaay Fortman, WFP's Representative in Iran. Over 40 mt of high capacity biscuits have been despatched to Bam, which the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) will then distribute. India has also donated over 109 mt of high-energy biscuits - another 450 mt has been made available by India in response to WFP's initial appeal. The biscuits, which provide each person with 450 kilocalories, are important in staving off hunger during the critical period in the aftermath of a disaster. The biscuits will be in addition to the canned food and bread that the survivors are already receiving. Many families have still not received kitchen utensils and facilities to cook with. The most vulnerable will be targeted – families living in tented camps, families who lost their houses, families who lost a breadwinner, orphans, female headed households and elderly and disabled people without income or support. The Iranian government has given WFP permission to use a three-month supply of wheat flour stock – usually for Afghan and Iraqi refugees. This has been handed over to the IRCS. A one-month’s supply of rice, vegetable oil, beans and sugar are being borrowed from existing WFP stocks in refugee camps. Additional food will be purchased either locally or delivered. The IRCS is registering people who will receive food aid – so far they have registered about 80,000 survivors, but it is a time consuming and difficult process – many families are leaving Bam, while at the same time, many of the injured who had been transported to hospitals throughout the country are returning. “You need to have an idea of the population figure for good planning for the future,” Dara Darbandi, WFP field monitor, told IRIN. “The plan is for feeding the affected population. In about three months we are going to provide them with food, rice, sugar, flour, pulses, oil, salt and high energy biscuits,” he added. Hundreds of Afghans living in Bam also died in the earthquake. Afghan authorities have said that the bodies of about 150 Afghans have been sent to Afghanistan for burial, with another 220 on the way. Around 4,500 Afghan refugees living in the area were affected by the earthquake. Over 700 Afghan refugee families have returned to Afghanistan from Bam. WFP is also supplying three-month rations to these families, in the provinces of Farah and Herat. The Iranian government has so far allocated $425 million for relief operations in credit and banking facilities for the reconstruction of Bam. The United Nations and IFRC launched a Flash Appeal for $73 million, to address the urgent and immediate needs of Bam and its people for the next three to six months. The international community have so far donated about $80.3 million dollars, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The earthquake killed more than 30,000 people and left 30,000 injured. 85 per cent of Bam and its surrounding twenty villages have been destroyed, including all of its schools and hospitals. Relief workers have reported that only 20 per cent of demolished houses have been searched for survivors of the earthquake. The remaining buried corpses pose a risk of disease, especially cholera, if they are not retrieved quickly. So far, nearly 4,200 people have been registered by health teams. There are no reports of epidemics, although there are three suspected cases of malaria.