The Weeknd has pledged another $2 million from the XOP Humanitarian Fund to the World Food Program's humanitarian response efforts in war-torn Gaza. According to a statement released on Monday morning (April 29), the money from the artist who now goes by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, will be used to provide more than 1,500 metric tons of enriched wheat flour, which can used to produce more than 18 million loaves of bread to feed more than 157,000 Palestinians for one month.
Tesfaye, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Program, previously donated $2.5 million — the equivalent of four million emergency meals — to WFP's response in Gaza in December 2023. This initial pledge provided 820 metric tons of parcels food to more than 173,000 Palestinians in two weeks, according to a statement. The singer also asks his fans for it I offer to WFP efforts in Gaza, where experts say more than a million displaced Palestinians face dire food shortages six months after Israel's punitive response to a deadly surprise attack by Hamas in which the militant group killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more of 250 men, women, children and senior citizens.
“We are very grateful for Abel's continued support as WFP works to respond to the urgent hunger crisis in Gaza,” said Barron Segar, president/CEO of WFP USA in a statement. “Hunger is a man-made problem and therefore solvable. We have enough food in this world to feed everyone. all we need is the funding and secure access to make it happen. Thanks to Abel's definition, families and children will get the food they so desperately need.”
To date, Tesfaye, his collaborators and fans have raised more than $6.5 million for the Fund, with the singer directing $4.5 million toward Gaza relief.
The UN reported last week that after nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment, the director of the WFP office in Geneva he said, “People cannot meet even the most basic food needs. They have exhausted all coping strategies such as foraging, begging, selling their possessions to buy food. Most of the time they are destitute and clearly some of them are dying of hunger.” The experts said that the dire situation in Gaza is verging on famine, with 30% of children under two now described as severely malnourished or wasted and 70% of the population in the north facing “catastrophic” hunger.
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