Little time left for food distribution

Tens of thousands of internally displaced (IDPs) in the country as well as people in villages and cities are in desperate need of help. The majority of the population has been forced to live on the edge for many years now. The latest crisis has only worsened conditions for the most vulnerable as resources are disappearing.

ACT members are determined to use what little time is left before the onset of winter to provide food and shelter for people. Villagers and IDPs living in the mountainous areas are especially at risk as these areas are essentially cut off for the rest of world once the first snows fall around mid-November.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says 7.5 million people are facing starvation due to years of drought and civil war -- a situation that has been made worse by the US-led military attacks. Even before the September 11 attacks in the US, more than 3-million people depended on food aid for their survival, according to a survey done by NGOs.

ACT members Church World Service (CWS), Christian Aid (CA) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) are providing food and shelter as a priority now, as well as clothes through their local partners in Afghanistan.

ACT member NCA is focussing getting food to people in the Kabul and mountainous central areas where their local partners are based. An estimated 150,000 families, about 60 percent of the population of these areas are extremely vulnerable. 'NCA & partners' aim at targeting 20,000 of the most needy of these families.

The program has started in the outskirts of Kabul. With the number of beneficiaries rising steadily, 3,400 families have already received NCA food aid. The Taliban have reportedly stopped paying people's salaries in the capital, Kabul, leaving people without any means of coping. The beneficiaries of the food aid receive 100 kg of wheat and 10 l cooking oil. This should last them about two months. Tents, clothes and water equipment are ready to be distributed.

Church World Service (CWS) has sent 1000 shelter kits to central Afghanistan, targeting IDPs who fled the cities in fear of the air strikes, with food aid and shelter. ACT member Christian Aid (CA) is focussing on the western region of Herat to get food and tents to thousands of families in need.

The local partners of the ACT members say that it is not difficult to bring the relief goods in but warn access across the border becomes more difficult during winter. ACT members are determined to use the small window of opportunity left before the start of winter to reach the people in need.