The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) and Venezuelan officials said on Monday they had reached a deal to supply food to schoolchildren in the South American country.
The program will reach 185,000 children in the crisis-stricken country in 2021, where child malnutrition has increased, and aims to expand to some 1.5 million by the end of the 2022-23 school year, the WFP said in a statement.
"This is the first step toward a series of ambitious projects that will provide food support to all of the Venezuelan people," Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said in an address from the Miraflores presidential palace broadcast on state television, where visiting WFP Executive Director David Beasley was also present.
Humanitarian aid groups have long pushed for Maduro's government to allow the WFP to distribute food aid in Venezuela.
"Thank you for allowing us to be independent and to not let any of our work be politicized by anybody," Beasley said. An earlier WFP statement had said schools were the most appropriate platform" to "reach communities in an independent manner."
The agreement was applauded by Venezuelan aid workers and activists.
"This agreement with the WFP to start operations in Venezuela is of vital importance," Feliciano Reyna, president of Caracas-based aid group Accion Solidaria which focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment and other medical relief, wrote on Twitter.
"We hope it will build trust to broaden its areas of action."
The program will reach 185,000 children in the crisis-stricken country in 2021, where child malnutrition has increased, and aims to expand to some 1.5 million by the end of the 2022-23 school year, the WFP said in a statement.
"This is the first step toward a series of ambitious projects that will provide food support to all of the Venezuelan people," Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said in an address from the Miraflores presidential palace broadcast on state television, where visiting WFP Executive Director David Beasley was also present.
Humanitarian aid groups have long pushed for Maduro's government to allow the WFP to distribute food aid in Venezuela.
"Thank you for allowing us to be independent and to not let any of our work be politicized by anybody," Beasley said. An earlier WFP statement had said schools were the most appropriate platform" to "reach communities in an independent manner."
The agreement was applauded by Venezuelan aid workers and activists.
"This agreement with the WFP to start operations in Venezuela is of vital importance," Feliciano Reyna, president of Caracas-based aid group Accion Solidaria which focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment and other medical relief, wrote on Twitter.
"We hope it will build trust to broaden its areas of action."
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