{"id":146919,"date":"2023-05-10T18:49:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T16:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/footballer-distel-zola-announced-as-world-food-programmes-wfp-nutrition-champion-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T18:49:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T16:49:04","slug":"footballer-distel-zola-announced-as-world-food-programmes-wfp-nutrition-champion-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/footballer-distel-zola-announced-as-world-food-programmes-wfp-nutrition-champion-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Footballer Distel Zola Announced as World Food Programme\u2019s (WFP) Nutrition Champion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that 34-year-old Congolese professional footballer Distel Zola has been named a High-Level Supporter for healthy meals and better nutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His appointment comes as the country faces high food insecurity and malnutrition levels.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As a high-level supporter, Zola will\u00a0use his professional status\u00a0to raise awareness about healthy eating, school meals, and malnutrition prevention among young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have long championed the need for young people to choose healthy food, I have seen first-hand how school meals benefit children and their families. As a father, I know how important a nutritious diet is for our children to learn and stay fit. I am delighted to be working with WFP in the DRC and hope to make a difference,\u201d says Distel Zola.<\/p>\n

Born on February 5, 1989, Distel Zola played for Monaco as a teenager, and his career then took him to France, Turkiye, and the United States. He represented the DRC\u2019s national team, \u201cThe Leopards,\u201d internationally. Distel plays for the Barbagiuans, a charitable team Prince Albert of Monaco owned. In 2021, he and his wife, Lorraine Lemaire, launched the Banazola Foundation to give Congolese children from deprived backgrounds a better future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to sign Distel Zola, and I am excited to see how we can bring young people together in the DRC to advocate for long-term solutions to malnutrition; we need to spread the word that healthy food means a healthy life. Zola is the perfect choice to help us raise this awareness,\u201d says Peter Musoko, WFP\u2019s Country Director in the DRC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zola joins WFP\u2019s team of High-Level Supporters advocating for nutrition and food security improvements, including television personality and activist Eitan Bernath, best known on social media for his captivating nature and cooking expertise.<\/p>\n

Approximately 2.8 million children and another 1.7 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022.WFP plans to reach 500,000 students with school meals in 2023. While the number of people facing food insecurity across the country remains critical, WFP continues to face funding shortages and requires US$ 285 million to meet the increasing humanitarian demands over the next six months.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Food Programme (WFP).<\/i><\/p>\n

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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that 34-year-old Congolese professional footballer Distel Zola has been named a High-Level Supporter for healthy meals and better nutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His appointment comes as the country faces high food insecurity and malnutrition levels. As a high-level supporter, Zola […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":146920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/5e1d8087d7c4250","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,9195,4696,6733,4554,6404,281,45442,4691,450,279,280,5074,10316,257,16043,10782,5935,254,1639,5093,45443],"class_list":["post-146919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-announced","tag-central-africa","tag-champion","tag-congo","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-distel","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-food","tag-footballer","tag-news","tag-nutrition","tag-programmes","tag-republic","tag-south-africa-today","tag-wfp","tag-world","tag-zola"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/5e1d8087d7c4250","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}