How 400,000 refugees in Gambella, Ethiopia, receive food every day

August 19 marks World Humanitarian Day, honouring the people who show up in the world’s most difficult places so families displaced by conflict can eat, children can keep learning, and communities can hold on to hope.

For many, food arrives at the table through routines so ordinary we rarely think about them. In a refugee camp, getting a bag of grain from a warehouse to a family is anything but routine. It is a coordinated operation involving governments, UN agencies, humanitarian organizations, and the refugee community itself, powered by people who have chosen to spend their working lives making it happen.

World Vision’s Food Assistance Program in Gambella, Ethiopia

Gambella, in western Ethiopia, has offered sanctuary to South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict since 1993. Today, nine camps in the region host more than 400,000 people. Since 2023, World Vision Ethiopia has been distributing food and school meals there in partnership with:

• The World Food Programme
• UNHCR
• Ethiopia’s Refugees and Returnees Service
• Seven World Vision Support Offices, including World Vision Canada

In 2025 alone, the operation reached 397,422 refugees — roughly the population of metropolitan Victoria, British Columbia — with 21,864 metric tons of food, and served hot school meals to 54,065 primary school children.

Why school meals matter for refugee children

One of them is Gatwech, a 14-year-old Grade 6 student at Nygunyyiel Refugee Camp. On school days, the meal he receives is what makes learning possible. “The school feeding makes me stay at school, learn, and participate in my class,” he says. When he grows up, he wants to be a doctor.

Gatwech’s story is one child’s experience, but it points to what the wider operation is designed to protect: the possibility that children who have fled conflict can still learn, grow, and imagine a future beyond displacement.

The humanitarian workers ensuring food reaches refugee families

On the front lines, there are people bringing food resources:

• Warehouse managers
• Food monitors
• Distribution officers
• Community Help Desk facilitators
• Drivers
• Volunteers from within the refugee community itself

Each distribution cycle involves biometric registration, food basket monitoring, post-distribution surveys, and joint monitoring visits with government and UN partners. Fourteen Community Help Desks operate across the distribution points; in 2025 alone, they logged and responded to 2,600 complaints and questions from refugees, most of which were raised by women.

Responding to growing humanitarian needs while building future resilience

None of this is easy. Since mid-February 2025, renewed conflict in South Sudan has pushed thousands more women and children across the border into Gambella through the Burbiey entry point. Climate shocks and fuel shortages add further pressure to already stretched supply chains.

Delivering food at scale in this context depends on constant coordination: monthly food coordination meetings at the zonal level, joint monitoring visits with the World Food Programme and UNHCR, pre- and post-distribution reviews with refugee committees, and daily operational updates among all partners on the ground.

Feedback from community members shapes what comes next. In 2026, the project expands to include supplementary feeding for 15,372 malnourished children under five and 3,174 pregnant and lactating women. Savings groups are being piloted so families can start small businesses inside the camps. In addition, fuel-efficient stoves have already reduced firewood use for cooking school meals by more than 60 per cent.

This World Humanitarian Day, we honour those who show up before, during, and after every crisis. Behind every meal is a partnership. Behind every partnership are people who commit themselves each day to the belief that no child, mother, or father displaced by conflict should go hungry.