Colombia has experienced its strongest seasonal rainfall in 11 years. The Cauca river banks have burst destroying homes and harvests.
Action Against Hunger teams are preparing the final logistics to distribute 440 tons of rice, 110 tons of sugar, 110 tons of cooking oil and 110 tons of vegetables to 13 municipalities in the regional departments of Bolivar, Sucre and Cordoba. In partnership with the World Food Programme, these supplies will be distributed with support from the Spanish Department for International Cooperation (AECI). Seven kilos of food will be distributed per person on two occasions with an interval of 40 days between each distribution. This will meet the basic food needs of 55,000 people who have lost their harvests and food reserves due to the heavy rainfall, for the next three months.
"Luckily, this region is not directly affected by the conflict and Action Against Hunger has substantial experience of working here," says Action Against Hunger's Head of Mission in Colombia, Alejandro Zurita.
According to the Colombian Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice, 554,000 people have lost a substantial part of their crops due to the flooding of the Cauca river.
Philippe Mean, Head of Food Security Programmes in Latin America for Action Against Hunger, highlights the importance of looking beyond food distributions. "Our teams are analysing the mid-and long-term consequences of the floods. This means finding out how many people will be unable to plant their next crops or pay back their loans, and what support local institutions will provide. It seems likely that they will need some kind of support following the emergency to be able to restart their agricultural and economic activities."
Action Against Hunger is looking into distributing agricultural tools to at least 1,500 families. Action Against Hunger has been present in Colombia since 1998 and is implementing nutrition, water and sanitation, health and food security programmes.
For more information, please contact Alicia Garcia on agarcia@achesp.org or 0034 91 771 1672 (Spain) or Christine Kahmann on c.kahmann@aahuk.org or 0208 293 6197 (UK).
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Action Against Hunger is an international humanitarian organisation, working in 43 of the world's poorest countries. Its vocation is to save lives, especially those of malnourished children, and to work with vulnerable populations to preserve and restore their livelihoods with dignity.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
