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afrol News, 22 July - The International Red Cross today launched its largest appeal since the Balkans operation three years ago, seeking US$ 61.9 million to provide direct support, including 76,000 metric tonnes of food, to 750,000 people affected by a severe food crisis in a region where HIV infection rates are running as high as 34 percent. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in a statement today says that a total of 1.3 million people in need will be reached through one of the largest-ever truck fleets assembled for general food distributions. The fleet would also be put at the disposal of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and other agencies responding to the emergency. At a press conference in Johannesburg today, the leaders of the Red Cross in Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe declared that "the combination of hunger and AIDS is causing a terrible tragedy which the world needs to respond to urgently." Mcbain Kanongodza, Secretary-General of the Malawi Red Cross, said that at least 13 million people are threatened by starvation in the coming months. "To date, the response from the international community, especially those countries that manage the bulk of the world's food supply, has not been adequate to meet the acute needs of the people in the region," he said. Red Cross assistance throughout the region was to be targeted at households made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. Criteria for beneficiary selection were to include households affected by HIV/AIDS and those headed by children, women and the elderly. Over 50 percent of Red Cross beneficiaries were to be children, the statement reads. Significant Red Cross food distributions were already underway in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The appeal recognised that there were "huge logistical challenges" for the Red Cross, the WFP and other agencies in bringing food to the most vulnerable in remote parts of southern Africa and a central part of the appeal would be to provide a fleet of 200 trucks - through the Norwegian government and Norwegian Red Cross - to ensure food deliveries take place off the main roads. This fleet would "have the capacity to deliver 1,000 metric tonnes at a time, when fully deployed from August onwards." The appeal would also provide other inputs besides the 76,000 metric tonnes of food and transport. These were to include improvements to water and sanitation facilities in poor rural communities. Blankets and medical supplies would also be provided. Subsistence farmers were to benefit from distributions of agricultural tools, seeds and fertilizer. The next main harvest in the region will not be until March 2003 and the present food shortfall is put at four million metric tonnes. "It is already too late for many people and there is little doubt that a tragic loss of life will overtake many isolated communities across these countries in the coming months," said Red Cross Food Security Co-ordinator, Renny Nancholas, today in Johannesburg. "Malnutrition is the deadliest enemy of a population already weakened by HIV/AIDS. We hope that donors will respond quickly and generously to this appeal." The Red Cross informed that the combination of high HIV infection rates and food shortages in the region made the crisis particularly profound. HIV/AIDS in itself "reduces food availability through falling production, loss of family labour, land and other resources; loss of livestock assets and implements," the statement informed. HIV/AIDS further reduced food access through declining income for food purchases. The pandemic also reduced "the stability and quality of food supplies through shifts to less labour intensive production." It was therefore the most vulnerable part of Africa's population that now found itself in midst of an extraordinary food shortage.
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