Catholic Relief Services Commits Emergency Supplies to Afghan Earthquake Survivors

Catholic Relief Services
Thursday, 28 March 2002

As rescue efforts fade and relief activities intensify in northeastern Afghanistan's Baghlan province, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is sending a variety of relief items to the leveled Nahrin district, where an estimated 30,000-50,000 people are homeless after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks rocked the area this week. The supplies, which complement the broad relief effort coordinated by the Afghan interim government and UN Emergency Task Force established for the crisis, include 1,000 stoves, with a month's worth of coal (10 tons in total), and 1,000 sets of cooking pots, plates, cups and eating utensils for a family of six.

"The town of Nahrin, along with many of the outlying villages, is largely destroyed," said David Swanson, CRS' Head of Office in Kabul. "As a result, all these thousands of people have no place to sleep, little to wear and nothing to cook or eat with – not to mention, of course, the unspeakable tragedy they're suffering."

CRS is also planning with local partners to distribute 3,100 tents, 12,000 blankets and 1,500 winter jackets to the most needy quake survivors.

The relief items are being transported from CRS' warehouse in Peshawar, Pakistan, to Kabul by road; airlifted to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif; and trucked to Nahrin. Relief operations have thus far been complicated by treacherous road conditions between Kabul and Nahrin, marked by damaged tunnels, snow blocked mountain passes, landslides triggered by the earthquakes and the country's ubiquitous threat of landmines.

Swanson added that while it's vital to meet the immediate needs of those affected by the earthquake, "this cannot distract us from continuing to address the massive, long-term development needs facing the entire country – the need to rebuild schools along with agriculture, water and health systems."

The earthquakes, the strongest of which centered in the Hindu Kush Mountains approximately 75 miles north of Kabul on Monday, have exacerbated the misery of tens of thousands in Baghlan province, many of them recent refugees, having returned to rebuild their lives after fleeing Afghanistan's wars and unrelenting drought.

In recent months, CRS has distributed emergency food and materials items to 180,000 people inside Afghanistan. The agency is also planning long-term development programs in the areas of education, agriculture, water management and infrastructure reconstruction.

Catholic Relief Services is the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. Founded in 1943, the agency provides assistance to people in more than 80 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Catholic Relief Services provides assistance on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Relief Services, see their website at: www.catholicrelief.org