Drought, Isolation Creating Crisis in Afghanistan

"Out of 1,100 wells in our area, only some 150 wells still hold a little water," a health worker at a clinic outside Jalabad in eastern Afghanistan told Action by Churches Together (ACT). "Malnutrition is growing very rapidly in the district, and along with malnutrition and poor water come a whole range of diseases which first and foremost hit our children."

The health clinic, run by Church World Service, a member of ACT, offers basic services to a large, rural community badly affected by drought. ACT is an international alliance of churches and relief agencies assisting thousands of people recovering from emergencies in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Even before the Sept. 11 attack on America and the resulting sanctions against Afghanistan, the BBC had reported, "One-third of the Afghan population has fled abroad - despairing of a future at home."

Afghanistan, a country of 26 million people, already had one of the largest refugee populations in the world, according to World Concern, a Seattle-based relief organization. The people have been fleeing war, their worst drought on record, persecution and near famine conditions. At least one-fifth of the country already faced starvation and had become almost totally dependent upon humanitarian aid.

But since the events of Sept. 11, the vast majority of humanitarian aid agencies have left the country. World Concern had worked in Afghanistan for 20 years until recently, when along with many other agencies, they were pressured to leave by the increasingly extremist Taliban regime and security concerns heightened by growing instability.

Now, according to World Concern relief director Kelly Miller, the agency is bolstering its efforts to get relief to Afghan refugees in the surrounding countries.

"For the past three years, World Concern has supplied clothing, medical supplies and food to Afghan refugees in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan. Now we are working with partners to expand that effort, if possible, into Pakistan," said Miller.

Beginning Oct. 1, part of those efforts include encouraging people in the northwest United States to donate hygiene SHARE Kits for refugees. Each kit will include a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, washcloth and other basic hygiene related items.

Many families fleeing Afghanistan left their homes with nothing, fearing for their very survival, said Miller. The kits will be given to refugees along with food and shelter at camps set up in neighboring countries.

The current goal is to collect 15,000 kits by Oct. 21, which will then be immediately shipped. For more information related to the hygiene kits, please visit www.worldconcern.org. Cash donations may be sent to World Concern, Afghan Refugee Relief Fund, 19303 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98133 or made by calling (800) 755-5022.

Meanwhile, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International will shortly issue an Appeal for Afghan refugees. ACT is currently assisting the victims of the severe drought and civil war and is preparing to respond to a new wave of refugees and after a possible U.S. strike on Afghanistan.

ACT members working in Pakistan and Afghanistan include Church World Service, Norwegian Church Aid, Christian Aid, Middle East Council of Churches and the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

As ACT member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) pointed out, many of those who left their homes in the cities may have gone to their home villages or to stay with relatives or friends, and therefore will not appear in a camp. NCA partners have started to identify most urgent needs among people in the Logar province, where food and non-food items are already being distributed.

Border areas where groups are said to be waiting for the border to open are being surveyed. In case of continued border closure, camps may also be established in rural areas inside the borders of Afghanistan. NCA will focus on providing water, sanitation services and shelter, but will also provide food and non-food items for immediate needs, medical supplies, clothes and give some psychosocial assistance.

Church World Service (CWS) will focus on shelter. The project aims to provide emergency shelter kits to the most vulnerable families, who have been either internally displaced or have crossed the border. The project targets 15,000 families or more than 100,000 people and will be implemented in refugee camps.

Christian Aid will provide emergency relief in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. The programs are focusing on the distribution of food and other basic relief items and some assistance in agriculture.

And the Middle East Council of Churches, working in cooperation with the Iranian Red Crescent, will focus on Afghan refugees in Iran and refugee groups concentrated alongside the Iranian-Afghan border. The response will entail food and non-food distributions such as tents and medical assistance.

Some relief is on the way right now. According to the Associated Press (AP), the first World Food Program convoy of food arrived Oct.1 for the hungry in the Afghan capital Kabul. Eight trucks carrying 218 tons of wheat made it to Kabul, said Khalid Mansour, the World Food Program information officer in neighboring Pakistan.

Kenzo Oshima, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, arrived in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Oct.1 and met with President Pervez Musharraf. "There is a large number of people who need food, water, shelter and other life-saving material inside Afghanistan,'' Oshima said, calling for more international aid. "Much more needs to be done,'' he said in the AP report.

The food convoy was the first to reach Kabul since the terror attacks and the subsequent pullout from Afghanistan of humanitarian staff. Mansour said the arrival of the wheat means there is enough food in their stocks to last until end of October.