ACT Revises its Afghanistan Appeal

ACT members Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Church World Service (CWS) and Christian Aid (CA) are all based in neighbouring countries in the region, working through their local partners in Afghanistan. The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) is based in Iran. Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid are based in Pakistan. Christian Aid (CA) works through its local partners in Pakistan and is assessing the situation in Iran and Tajikistan. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in Tajikistan remains an important resource for ACT response in the region.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) puts the number of people in Afghanistan who rely on and are in urgent need of food aid at more than 7 million people. The humanitarian crisis, created by drought and civil war, has become even more desperate as a result of military action against the country. ACT International continues to promote a regional approach in responding to the crisis.

Christian Aid's main objective is to promote stability and improve quality of life throughout the Central Asia region by working with local partner organisations. To achieve this goal, CA will develop and support programs to meet the immediate needs and alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable members of the Afghan IDPs and refugee population, for food, potable water, shelter and health service. The need for increased regional food security and sustainable rural livelihood will also be addressed. In its regional approach to the humanitarian crisis, CA will also provide aid to Afghan refugees and vulnerable members of the host communities in Tajikistan and Iran, as well as farmers and villagers who have remained in their homes during the crisis.

Church World Service (CWS) aims to provide emergency shelter and food aid to 15,000 of the most vulnerable families who are either internally displaced or have become refugees by fleeing Afghanistan. Protection will also be provided from the harsh environment to those most vulnerable -- children, women and the elderly. The agency's program will be implemented in refugee camps outside Peshawar in the North Western Frontier Province and near Quetta in Balochistan province, as well as in IDP settlements in Central and Northern Afghanistan.

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) will focus its response on the developing refugee crisis along the extended eastern border between Iran and Afghanistan in the Iranian province of Khorasan. The agency's goal is to assist 12,000 Afghan refugees in Iran. MECC is already prepared for possible new refugees fleeing from the latest attacks, aiming to alleviate the situation by assisting them with basic food and health needs along with pastoral aid to help them cope with the new and developing crisis.

Norwegian Church Aid's strategy to deal with the growing crisis in the most constructive manner is to assist the UNHCR in setting up adequate facilities to receive the expected influx of refugees into appropriate settings, as well as to identify and meet the needs of people inside Afghanistan. In Pakistan NCA will assist the expected influx of Afghan refugees if and when the border is opened. In camps set up by the UNHCR, the NCA network will establish water supply and sanitary facilities for the total population of about 60,000 in 6 camps. In Afghanistan the focus will be on helping people living under critical or worsening conditions, people who in most part area are already being assisted by NCA through its local partners. NCA aims to assist 25,000 internally displaced people in Afghanistan with water and sanitation facilities, shelter (tents), food (monthly packages of 50kg wheat, 10kg rice, 5kg beans and 5l cooking oil), health and psychosocial services, as well as medical supplies.