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January 11, 2005

Visit to the World Food Programme in Ouagadougou

Conversation with a young man in the street in Ouagadougou this morning

Me: Excusez-moi, ou se trouve PAM? (Excuse me, where is Pam?)
Him: Pam qui (Pam who?)
Me: Pas Pam, PAM - Programme Alimentaire Mondial (not Pam, PAM - World Food Programme)
Him: Mille Francs pour te montrer (for 1000 francs I will direct you there)
Me: Non, ca va - merci. (thanks but no thanks)

I found it eventually, and a very impressive place it is too. The offices are nice without being over the top - the corridor walls all covered in poster-sized photos of cute children holding bowls of rice - you know the sort of thing.

Anyway, I spoke with a nice American lady called Kerren Hedlund who is deputy director of the World Food Programme in Burkina, and the upshot is that we can go ahead as planned. They will assist me in buying grain in the south and transporting it up north, where it will be distributed to school canteens.

Kerren assured me that in this project there is no problem with the grain getting into the hands of those it is intended for - it is all accounted for, we can be confident of that.

At the end of this month (Jan 2005) there will be an approvisonnement (provision-ment) in Djibo, which is a grand way of saying that the WFP trucks will be coming. I will be there to meet them, and will post some photos etc on this page.

Thanks again to all of you who have given so generously. Watch this page for further updates.

You can also visit www.wfp.org for further information about the World Food Programme.

Posted by sahelsteve at January 11, 2005 03:28 PM