World Vision Zimbabwe has stepped up preparatory activities such as community mobilization, registration and verification of beneficiaries ahead of the scaling-up of food interventions this month. The programme will seek to address deepening food insecurity in the country.

World Vision's Daniel Muchena said that the organisation is expecting to have its food aid programme up and running once beneficiary registration and verification was complete in mid October. World Vision will distribute food using two pipelines - the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and C-SAFE, funded by USAID.

The C-SAFE programme is targeting 153 988 beneficiaries with 1 869 484 metric tonnes of food. The WFP pipeline is targeting 228 082 beneficiaries with a total of 19 870 531 metric tonnes of food. The food ration consists of cereals, vegetable oil, and pulses.

WV Zimbabwe also have emergency food operations that benefit 116 587 people, many of whom are children under the Emergency Schools Feeding Program. Other programs that are currently operational o include the Institutional Feeding Program, Community Kitchens and the Chronically Ill (CI) Feeding Program that also cater for patients on ARV therapy.

Muchena said World Vision will carefully proceed with the distribution of food aid, initially targeting the most vulnerable. He added that because of logistical constraints, they were going to initially distribute food to orphans, the disabled and the elderly, and then to move to another category of the vulnerable.

"What we need to be aware of is that the number of people in need of food aid has shot up steeply, whereas the resources have remained limited, and we need to be cautious as we implement the programme. Our immediate concern is to preserve lives, and from World Vision's assessment, orphans, the disabled and the elderly are most in need," said Muchena.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and WFP Crop and Food Assessment Mission in Zimbabwe released in June 2008, projected that between July and September 2008, 2.04 million people in rural area will be food insecure, whilst 5.1 million people in both rural and urban areas will be food insecure at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009, and in urgent need of food aid.

However, these official statistics have since revised upwards with unconfirmed reports putting the figure at over 7 million following the deepening of the vulnerability after the blanket ban on all field activities by NGOs/PVOs in June. The government accused some NGOs for using humanitarian aid to advance a political agenda; the ban was only lifted last month.

Apart from food aid interventions, World Vision implements recovery programmes under water and sanitation, food security, HIV and AIDS, through the support of several donors that include FAO, ECHO, and DFID.