WFP Executive Director To Visit Syrian Refugees In Turkey
ANKARA – The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, will be in Turkey 13-15 January to visit WFP’s food assistance operation for Syrian refugees and to hold meetings with senior government officials in Ankara and Istanbul.
Cousin will hold a news conference at Kilis refugee camp in which she will brief journalists about the developing humanitarian situation in Syria and WFP programmes to support refugees in the neighbouring countries.
Inside Syria, WFP has scaled up its operations and is reaching 1.5 million people monthly with food assistance. WFP’s Regional Emergency Operation to cover the food needs of refugees in neighbouring countries was launched in July and is now expanding to include the new wave of arrivals of refugees fleeing to Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
In Turkey, WFP has partnered with the Turkish Red Crescent to provide assistance to Syrian refugees through an electronic food voucher programme in the refugee camps.
Details: Please contact the WFP public information officers listed below for further information on media opportunities. Video will be available on 15 January. Please contact: jonathan.dumont@wfp.org
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Abeer Etefa, WFP/Ankara, Mob. + 905309561083 and +201066634352
Laure Chadraoui, WFP/Beirut-Amman, Mob. + 962795917987 and +9613489925
Emilia Casella, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 6513 3854, Mob. +39 347 9450634
Elisabeth Byrs, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. +41 79 473 4570
Bettina Luescher, WFP/New York, Tel. +1 646 5566909, Mob. +1 646 8241112
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44 20 72409001, Mob. +44 7968 008474
Rene McGuffin, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1 202 6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1 202 4223383
Reem Nada, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +202 2528 1730 ext. 2610, Mob. +2 010 666 34522