Families in conflict spend three-quarters of income on food

LONDON, UK, British Red Cross, 16 October 2008

She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest. “Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”

Households in countries affected by armed conflict spend as much as 75 per cent of their income on food, compared to 15 per cent spent by the average person in the UK, the British Red Cross announced on World Food Day (16 October).The Red Cross helps communities suffering from conflict and lack of access to food all around the world.

Drought in Afghanistan

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Afghan Red Crescent are distributing 500 truck-loads of emergency food aid to people in desperate need in four remote, far-flung provinces in the north of the country before the onset of the harsh Afghan winter next month.

Around 280,000 people are suffering the effects of the worst drought in a decade. With no food, no money to buy seeds, and no guarantee it will rain, the outlook for the winter harvest is bleak in an area that relies on rain-fed farming.

Thousands of families are expected to leave their homes in search of food and work.

Their plight is compounded by rocketing food prices. Across Afghanistan, large numbers of people cannot afford to buy essential staples like wheat and rice. The cost of flour, for example, has doubled in less than a year.

Growing again in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, the Red Cross community animation and peace support programme (CAPS) helps communities recovering from war set up work groups to grow food.

Women like Nyanda Albert (28) work on vegetable gardening, while men take care of the bigger farms that produce their staple food of rice and cassava.

Nyanda said: “After the war we were barely living on cassava and bush yam. It was survival of the fittest.”

Bringing in money

She continued: “With the intervention of the Sierra Leone Red Cross after the war, it has been much better as it actively encouraged us to grow food for ourselves and to sell some, which has meant we are bringing in money. The profits are what we live on – taking care of the children and ourselves.”

The Red Cross has provided seed rice to Nyanda’s group. The group will keep some to plant for the next season, sell some at the local market and eat the rest.

“Everyone benefits from it,” she said. “We’ve had a good harvest this year and we’ve been eating twice a day. Cassava in the morning and rice in the evening.”