The UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) said Monday that hungry families in South
Sudan will be able to make ends meet thanks to vegetable-growing
kits funded by a donation from Pope Francis.
The kits come as the food security situation is forecast to
worsen in coming months, the Rome-based UN agency said.
Around 5,000 families, or more than 30,000 people, in Yei in
Central Equatoria have benefited from the recent €25,000
contribution from the Pope to FAO.
The money is being used to provide the kits and agricultural
hand tools in an area where livelihoods such as farming have
been wiped out by fighting.
"Before the war, life was good and we could eat sufficiently,
now just some little breakfast and dinner. My child still cries
that he's hungry," said 22-year-old Suzan Night who was among
those who received the kits from FAO in Yei.
"Onions and tomatoes can be sold at the market which will
really help me".
"These vegetable kits can be the difference between life and
death for many people," said Serge Tissot, FAO's Representative
in South Sudan.
"Thanks to Pope Francis' contribution, more people in Yei
will be able to re-start growing their own food to stave off the
worst ravages of hunger," he said.
The kits will provide seven fast-growing vegetable varieties
to increase families' access to nutritious foods and bridge the
food gap between the cereal harvests.
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