US AID to continue 
[Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 5.30 GMT]   

  
The United States will continue to assist the Government of Sri Lanka and partners such as the World Food Programme to help meet the food security needs of the conflict-displaced, as needed, said US Ambassador Robert Blake at a function held yesterday (19) at Orugodawatte, Colombo where the first consignment of food assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), containing 17,500 tons of mixed food valued at US$5 million, was handed over to the Government.
  
This forms part of a total food donation of US$14 million through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), with another shipment valued at an additional US$9 million set to arrive later in the year.
  

“The food has been made available for WFP through USAID’s ‘Food for Peace’ program. USAID has been a strong supporter of WFP operations in Sri Lanka; in terms of food aid the U.S. Government ranks fourth among individual donors, and they have also recently provided cash contribution of US$300,000 to improve the logistics capacity supporting WFP food aid programs,” said a press release issued by the US Embassy in Colombo.
  

WFP assisted 1.3 million vulnerable people in Sri Lanka with food during 2006, including emergency relief assistance to about 300,000 people newly displaced by the conflict. In 2007, WFP is providing food aid to almost 75 percent of the displaced people in the country.
  
 

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Last Updated Date: September 20, 2007 - 5.30 GMT