Paraguay: Food Assistance Helps Family Through Flood Emergency
Paraguay: Food Assistance Helps Family Through Flood Emergency
Guillermina Lancosa, is 65 years old and lives in the flood-stricken district of El Chaco, Paraguay. In this photograph from July, she is with her daughter and grandchildren, as they receive the first rations of WFP food. Remembering the heavy rains that hit her district, Nueva Promesa, in April and May, she says: "It was a week of non-stop rains, everything got wet and flooded."
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These are the tents that were erected to host the families of Nueva Promesa community. The floods destroyed their homes and livelihoods, wrecking the sesame crop - the main source of income for the community. This photograph was taken in June.
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Nueva Promesa has 197 families settled in six villages, about 10 miles away from the main road, known as the Trans-Chaco. The Sanapana tribe have managed to adapt to the difficult conditions of the ‘Chaco’, the sort of semi-desert covering almost 60 percent of Paraguay. In this photo a group of children play outside a tent.
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Guillermina holds her grandson during the second food distribution in August. "WFP food is the best kind of aid we are getting now - thank you for that," says Guillermina in her Guarani language.
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Guillermina (second from the left) poses with other community members just after receiving WFP food in August. Their community can be reached by land today. All the families have returned to their villages and their homes have been rebuilt. The food assistance they received helped them avoid falling into hunger in the immediate aftermath of the flood.
Last spring in Paraguay, unusual torrential rains destroyed crops and villages, affecting thousands of families. Thanks to WFP and the Government’s assistance, the families living in the district of El Chaco have managed to rebuild their lives.