ETHIOPIA: WFP to provide food for HIV-affected households

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) signed an agreement on Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to expand its urban HIV/AIDS programme to provide nutritional assistance to 110,000 people in 14 towns until December 2007.

Beneficiaries will include people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, women and infants in prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes, and HIV/AIDS home-based care volunteers.

The agreement, worth US$9 million, was made in partnership with the Addis Ababa HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (AA-HAPCO) and 60 local NGOs, community-based organisations and health service providers.

"The scaling up and expansion of our HIV/AIDS urban programme will allow WFP to continue working towards improving the nutritional status and quality of life of many thousands of people in Ethiopia, who are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS," said Abnezer Ngowi, WFP Acting Country Director.

More than two million of Ethiopia's 77 million people are estimated to be living with the virus, with mostly urban households affected.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]