The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that Mahmoud Yassin is making his first visit to Sudan, and today traveled to Darfur to meet people affected by the ongoing conflict and insecurity in the strife-torn region.
Yassin, one of the best-known Egyptian and Arab film stars of all time, became WFP’s ‘Ambassador Against Hunger’ last year to help raise awareness of the plight of over 850 million hungry people in the world. He joins other celebrities in championing WFP’s cause, including Hollywood actor Sean Connery, the Grammy-award winning, Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora, and marathon world champion and former school feeding beneficiary Paul Tergat.
WFP is providing assistance to a record 2.75 million people in Darfur with 47,650 metric tons of food. It is expected that significant food assistance will also be required in 2006.
Mahmoud Yassin is expected to return to Khartoum on 13 December, and will hold an informal press conference at WFP (address: 653, Block 68, Arkawit, Khartoum) at 9 am on Wednesday, 14 December. Members of the media are invited to attend and are requested to kindly bring UNMIS media accreditation cards.
For more information, please contact Penny Ferguson at +249 91 217 9190 (email: Penny.Ferguson@wfp.org) or Khaled Mansour +20-122348671 (email: Khaled.Mansour@wfp.org).
*************
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 61 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school – a gift of hope for a brighter future.
Visit our website: www.wfp.org
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Penny Ferguson, WFP/Khartoum, Mob. +249 91 217 4769, Tel. +249 183 248 001, extn 2140
Peter Smerdon, WFP/Nairobi, Tel. +254 20 622 179, Mob. +254 733 528 911
Brenda Barton, Deputy Director Communications, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-06-65132602, Mob. +39 3472582217
# # #
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 61 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school – a gift of hope for a brighter future.
Visit our website: www.wfp.org
