Emergency Response

After a short briefing we took off. Again, I was caught somewhere between feeling thrilled and extremely excited and at the same time kind of shaken by the thought of flying in a chopper to a remote jungle village while yet another typhoon was on its way. This was soon forgotten and I fully enjoyed the sensation of flying and I kept thinking that this is an amazing experience and that I am lucky to work for such a cool company. 

 

The plan was to transport 116 metric tons of High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) - nutritious vitamin and mineral enriched biscuits - to the Philippines. However, because of the planned route and the alternative safety airport that was chosen, we were only able to load 101 metric tons in order not to breach the minimum fuel requirements. As everybody was pointedly aware of how essential these HEBs were for the Philippines and the relief effort of WFP, the pilots were committed to load as many biscuits as possible.

As usual we buy some bottles of water on our way to the media center and I start working on writing and editing my material. At 10 am we gather at the WFP office in Jakarta. Today we join another food distribution in a village in Pariaman, 2 hours from Padang. We are going to deliver 1300 boxes for 2000 beneficiaries. Again children and women. On my way over here I read an article about a recent report on increasing world hunger. This report stated a direct correlation between the education of women, their active role in political and economical life and the percentage of hungry people.