UN taps crowdfunding app to tackle refugee camp food shortages
The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) has responded to a funding crunch by developing a mobile app that lets people around the world donate money to help feed the 4 million displaced Syrians living in neighboring countries.
Developed by a start-up in Berlin, the app 'Share the Meal' is touted as the first of its kind, allowing people to fund food rations for WFP initiatives in Jordan, to which many of the people escaping Syria's civil war have fled.
The new app, available for both the iPhone and Android devices, offers food donations from US$0.50 a day for a food bar to up to US$150 a year, and funds are directly forwarded to WFP school feeding programs.
"'Share the meal' for us definitely is about growing the pie of people who contribute and we are increasingly looking for partners in the private sector and individuals in the broader public to help us," said Robert Opp, director of innovation and change management at the WFP.
Only two months ago, the WFP launched a new fundraising and awareness campaign with global brands like McDonald's and Google.
Alleviating hunger and improving living conditions in refugee camps as well as among the Syrian communities in Lebanon and Jordan is widely seen as crucial to encouraging more Syrians not to leave the area to embark on a risky journey to Europe.
Europe is struggling with a record influx of refugees this year, with Germany, its biggest economy, expecting the arrival of up to a million asylum seekers in 2015 alone.
The WFP, which requires US$26 million a week to feed the 4 million refugees residing in countries bordering on Syria, earlier cut back its food rations to 1.3 million people due to a funding shortage in 2014.