Refugee Assistance:
• In November WFP provided food and nutrition assistance to 113,500 people, including 61,500 Congolese refugees, 43,726 Burundians, 300 Rwandan refugees returning to Rwanda mainly from Democratic Republic of the Congo and 26 asylum seekers accommodated in Nyanza transit Centre. WFP also provided school meals to 36,607 children in schools in and around refugee camps, including 7,649 children from the host communities attending the same schools as refugee children.
• WFP continued to provide reduced general food assistance rations in line with the new targeting approach. Refugees classified as highly vulnerable (85.4 percent of all refugees) received a food ration equivalent to 92 percent of the food basket instead of the 100 percent recommended, while refugees classified as moderately vulnerable (7.2 percent of refugees) received a food ration of 46 percent of the food basket instead of the 50 percent recommended ration.
Should additional funding be received, WFP will be able to increase the food basket to the recommended ration size.
• Since August 2020, 29,206 Burundian refugees have voluntarily repatriated back to Burundi. In November, WFP continued to support repatriating refugees with the provision of hot meals at transit centres before departure and distribution of high energy biscuits (HEBs) to support the journey to their home country.
Resilient livelihoods:
• Through the resilient livelihoods programme, in November WFP provided cash-based transfers (CBT) to 6,900 people in five districts for their participation in the rehabilitation of marshland and terracing. The project has thus far rehabilitated 538 hectares of land.
Home-Grown School Feeding:
• In November, WFP provided daily meals to 74,596 primary students in 108 schools in four districts. Additionally, as per the new requirements mandated by the recently approved School Feeding Operational Guidelines, WFP has worked closely with the programme’s four district governments, to ensure that School Feeding Committees are established in all schools, sectors and districts, in addition to School Tender Committees in all schools.
Nutrition & HIV:
• WFP as part of its efforts to ensure nutrition and food safety to support public health, chaired the Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses Technical Committee under the Rwanda Standards Board to review the “Guideline on application of microbiological criteria for foodstuffs”.
Source: World Food Programme