MCC sending aid to drought- and war-stricken Afghanistan

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 22 June 2001

AKRON, Pa. -- After three years of inadequate rainfall, millions in Afghanistan are desperate for food and water.

Drought is especially debilitating to this country already in crisis due to 20 years of war.

Composing the world's second largest group of refugees, some 2.6 million Afghans have fled to neighboring Iran and Pakistan; millions of others are displaced within the country's borders.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is contributing $735,000 Cdn./$474,000 U.S. through its partner organizations in Afghanistan in 2001.

MCC currently has no volunteers in Afghanistan but has made substantial contributions to the country since 1995 largely through Canadian farmers' donations of wheat to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

A portion of the current contribution, $447,000 Cdn./$289,000 U.S., will purchase food for tuberculosis patients, most who contracted the disease due to malnourishment and weak immune systems. Patients are often unemployed and are unable to pay for food or treatment. Wheat for tuberculosis patients will be administered through Medair, an international aid agency, which also supplies free medications.

Donated wheat will also be given to Afghan widows and their families. Laws passed by the ruling Taliban government restrict women from holding paying jobs in most parts of the country. MCC aid will be distributed by CARE workers, who take food to widows and their families, visit them in their homes and provide health education. MCC first began working with CARE International in Afghanistan in 1996.

In past years, Afghan workers received the MCC-donated wheat as payment for clearing obstructions from "karezes" -- underground spring systems. The canals transport water for irrigation, but eventually become blocked by dirt and rocks.

"Clean canals provide 40 to 60 percent more water, and thus irrigate more crops," explained Willie Reimer, director of MCC food, disaster and material resources programs. Reimer visited karez projects last year. The projects are administered by Medair.

"It was wonderful to see water flowing in one district of this parched country," Reimer said.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org