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WFP reduces food rations to Vanni IDPs

The board at a distribution branch displays amounts given to IDPs for the third week of November. The items listed are in order rice, white flour, lentils and coconut oil.

Board at distribution branches

Eight years old Kandaih Chinnapillai lamets, “The food we get is not at all enough. Sometimes we just drink black tea and go without food. The ration we got fits in our hand and not much more.”

Narayanan family displaced from Nedunkerni and is presently living as IDPs in Chilavaththai in Mullaithivu District. He says, “I have no work after displacement. My family has ten members and we have been receiving rations from WFP. We receive only 1.27 Kilograms of rice now. We go without food on many occasions.”

Waiting for ration

The manager, Chandrakumar, of the MPCS branch in Chilavaththai that distributes the WFP ration says, “For a family of five we give 0.635 kilograms of rice; 2.36 kilograms of white flour; 0.3 kilograms of sugar and 2.1 kilograms of lentils and 0.7 litres of coconut oil. Obviously this is not enough. People have got outraged by the reduced amount and have thrown the ration back at us. Their plight is tragic.”

Kandaih Chinapillai

A local NGO representing the welfare of the Vanni IDPs has lamented the reduction in the ration in letter sent to the UN resident representative, Neil Buhne. In the letter they said, “119,167 members of 31,707 IDP families are presently receiving WFP rations. … The reduction in the WFP ration for the IDPs for the third week of November has made many of the IDP families to starve. The very low WFP stock is the reason for the reduction. In the past, you have had the policy of ensuring a three month stock in hand. We believe that the present situation arose because you have not followed this policy. We, therefore request you that you follow this policy strictly in the future.”

Waiting for ration

09 December 2008

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