TNT has flown 200 tonnes of high-energy biscuits to the Philippines for the victims of the recentfloods. This is the largest airlift of food relief yet to the Asian country.
As part of TNT’s “Moving the World” partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme(WFP), TNT will ship the emergency rations in two stages with a 100 tonne shipment arriving today(Tuesday) and the second 100 tonne shipment arriving on 24 October.
The food assistance will be loaded from Izmir, Turkey, and will be flown to the Philippinesonboard TNT’s Boeing 747-400 Extended Range Freighter. The freighter was diverted from its regularreturn flight from Liege in Belgium to Hong Kong to perform the humanitarian mission, TNT said in astatement.
Most of the 200 tonnes of biscuits, which have been fortified with essential vitamins andminerals, will be used in supplementary feeding programmes to enhance the nutritional health ofpregnant women, nursing mothers and children under five years old. In cooperation with thePhilippines Department of Social Welfare and Development, WFP will target the biscuits to areasworst hit by flooding.
“Tens of thousands of young mothers and children are going to benefit as a result of thisgenerous gesture on the part of TNT,” said Stephen Anderson, WFP Country Director in thePhilippines. “We owe TNT an enormous debt of gratitude for providing this service, which will saveus close to $750,000 in shipping costs. And we are also extremely grateful to the Government ofAustralia, who provided WFP with US$1.75 million in cash, part of which has been used to purchasethe biscuits.”
WFP initiated the relief activities for the victims immediately after super typhoons Ondoyand Pepeng (international names Ketsana and Parma, respectively) devastated parts of the countrycausing massive loss of lives, properties, crops and livelihoods.
In the past few months, TNT and WFP also provided relief efforts to the victims of variouscatastrophes in Asia. The two organisations provided 50 tonnes of high energy biscuits to Indonesiafor the affected families by the earthquake that struck the coast of Padang. In India, monetarydonations for relief materials were allocated for those affected by the heavy rains that causedflash floods throughout Kartnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The partnership between TNT and WFP started in 2002 with TNT contributing around US$50million worth of support to WFP’s efforts worldwide so far.
