The World Food Programme (WFP) is the UN logistics lifeline. It saves lives through fast, efficient and effective emergency response. At any given time, WFP has 30 ships at sea, 60 aircraft in the sky and 5000 trucks on the ground.
Managing these logistics can be daunting — the areas which need food and aid most can lack even rudimentary communications and transportation. The WFP’s continuous efforts to improve its efficiency fit in well with SAP’s mission to help companies be able to adapt quickly and flexibly to succeed and to grow. Since 2000 SAP has helped the WFP manage its logistics so that it can allocate its resources better and always be aware of where food is and when it will get to where it’s going.
The donation that SAP is making to the World Food Programme on behalf of its employee volunteers will be directed to WFP school feeding programmes. School feeding programmes were chosen because SAP, in the business of human knowledge development, believes that these programmes can have a huge impact on a child’s life and his or her willingness and ability to learn.
School feeding is a magnet to bring children to school and keep them there. It’s difficult for hungry children to learn on an empty stomach. WFP programmes provide children with a meal when they first arrive at school, a meal at lunch time, as well as take-home rations.
In WFP assisted schools, absolute enrollment increased by 28% for girls and by 22% for boys in the first year of assistance. In addition to increasing the desirability of and access to education, school feeding can combat child labour (food provided at school is an incentive for families to send children to school instead of keeping them home to work for additional income) and boost economic growth, as educated individuals earn higher wages and have better earnings when self-employed.
It doesn’t take much to make a difference. €10 will feed a child in Ethiopia for 140 days or a child in Laos or Nicaragua for over 180 days.
If you like, you can support the WFP directly by clicking here.
