Economy

UN aid saves thousands of Zabul families from hunger during, beyond Ramadan

By Rahimullah Khpelwak

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is providing cash assistance to 31,000 needy families in Qalat city, the capital of Zabul province, and other Zabul districts. [Rahimullah Khpelwak/Salaam Times]

ZABUL -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is providing cash assistance to 31,000 needy families in Qalat city, the capital of Zabul province, and other Zabul districts.

Launched on April 5, the assistance will continue for a year.

The budget for this programme is 720 million AFN ($8.3 million), said Khalil Ahmad Hotak, director of UNICEF's office in Zabul.

"We identified the poor households through an assessment," he said. "Most of them do not even have dry bread to eat."

In this video grab, needy Afghans receive cash assistance from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, on April 5.

In this video grab, needy Afghans receive cash assistance from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, on April 5.

"The objective of providing them with cash assistance is to reduce poverty and hunger and prevent immigration by Afghans," he added.

A total of 23,400 AFN ($272) will be distributed to each household in six phases -- 3,900 AFN ($45) every two months.

Most households receiving cash assistance from UNICEF are the relatives of members of former Afghan security forces who were killed on duty, families affected by drought, or individuals who have lost their jobs, Hotak said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is also helping Zabul families by distributing food items during the month of Ramadan.

Mohammad Amir, director of the Zabul Department of Economy, said 3,148 households have been covered by the programme.

Each family receives 50kg of flour, 5kg of oil, 6kg of chickpeas and food supplements for children, he said.

"The food items are distributed to households that have not had any food to eat during the month of Ramadan," Amir said.

"The food aid allows poor families to have food for iftar (the meal they have when they break their fast) and for suhur (their midnight meal)," he said.

'Never witnessed such poverty'

Zabul families receiving assistance from the UN programmes said they are grateful to have food on their table during Ramadan.

Abdul Manan, 65, a labourer and the breadwinner of a seven-member family, said he really needed this assistance.

"I am very happy about the assistance. I couldn't even afford to buy a bag of flour [to bake] dry bread for my family."

"Because of financial problems, I cannot buy food items such as oil and rice," he said.

"The majority of [Afghans] have fallen into poverty recently, and most of them do not even have enough food for one night."

"[Afghans] would starve to death if it were not for the aid agencies' assistance," Abdul Manan said, adding, "Afghans have never witnessed such poverty and famine."

Abdul Manan said that in the past, he would do different jobs to provide for his family, but jobs have become scarce in the last two years and food prices have gone up.

Khair Mohammad, 52, who has received a food package from WFP, said he is very happy that in these difficult times, the international community has not forgotten Afghans.

"Poverty bothers me so much. All I worry about is finding food for my family but there are no sources of income through which I can make a living," he added.

"If it weren't for the assistance from aid agencies, [Afghans] could not overcome poverty and hunger."

"There are no work opportunities, and we cannot cultivate our lands because of the drought," he said.

While Afghanistan is grappling with an economic crisis, international assistance has saved the lives of millions of Afghans, Mohammad said.

Salvation from hunger

Khadija, 47, lost her brother and two sons, who were serving in the National Police, to wars in Zabul. She is the guardian of three families but suffers from severe poverty.

Her brother and two sons are survived by 18 family members, all of whom she now must support by herself.

"I am responsible for three families without any source of income."

"My orphaned grandchildren and nephews are young and can't work," she said. "My daughters-in-law and sister-in-law are afraid to work outside the house."

As a result, she is forced to "work in other [Afghans'] homes or beg on the streets", she said.

"Assistance by aid agencies saved us from hunger in the holy month of Ramadan. We have no hope except for such assistance. There is no one else to help us," Khadija added.

It is exhausting to fast on an empty stomach, she added, but the assistance has helped her not to worry about her family going hungry.

Shirin Gul, 42, who lost her husband three years ago in the war, supported her family of four by working in other Afghans' homes and doing their laundry.

She used to make 200 AFN ($2.32) a day, she said, but families do their own laundry now, so she has become jobless.

"Life has become very difficult from poverty and economic hardship. I worry ever morning about finding food for the night."

"I cry and feel bad every time I look at my hungry children," she said.

The food that she receives from UN agencies will help feed her family for about two months, Gul said.

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I thank all the aid organizations and especially the United Nations' offices around the world who are helping the poor people of Afghanistan in this difficult situation, but I say why these offices do not find a permanent solution to help the poor people and the beggars. I am sure these people think that Afghans, especially Muslims, should be down to earth, beggars and beg all their lives! Otherwise, instead of 10,000 people, help 1,000 people to get permanent jobs. On one hand, they will get rid of the problem forever, and on the other hand, these people will improve themselves and support themselves and their families.

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I read the report that 11 people committed suicide in several provinces of Afghanistan in March alone due to economic problems and poverty. No one can tolerate the sad news on these happy days of Eid, but with this challenging and bad country situation, people are very sad. Instead of making plants to create job opportunities and provide business opportunities to the people, work is done in reverse order.

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The people of Afghanistan need more help from the United Nations. In Afghanistan, the number of poor people has doubled during the last 18 months. People's economy is very bad, even people can't find their bread. In the last 46 years, most of Afghans have lost the male heads of their families due to the wars of the Soviets and the civil wars, and the breadwinners of most families are women, while the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not allow women to work in the current government. The current government of Afghanistan does not allow the construction work anymore, so that people can build their houses. From this moment, most of the people of the labor class are unemployed and sitting idle at their homes and waiting for the humanitarian aid of the United Nations to help them. The United Nations should double its humanitarian aid because the poor people need it more than ever. We, the people of Afghanistan, express our gratitude to the United Nations and other aid organizations. Thanks again to all the organizations that help the people of Afghanistan.

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This program is undoubtedly a useful program for Zabul and the people of Afghanistan as a whole, by which the problems of the needy people have been solved to some extent. This program has been implemented in some areas of Nangarhar before Zabul. It is a pity that this aid liquidity is mostly distributed among people related to the current system and as far as I know and have seen with my own eyes, there is no evidence that the said aid was given to the relatives of the former security forces' victims. Due to the fact that in these days, besides this program, dozens of other aid organizations are also working and helping people, most of these aids go to the rulers instead of the needy.

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