Under the Warm Winter project for 2018-2019, Qatar Red Crescent Society’s (QRCS) mission in Afghanistan has distributed winterisation and food aid to 4,125 displaced families in three Afghan provinces.
The project aimed at alleviating the suffering of poor families affected by disasters and conflict, meeting their needs during the winter and preserving their human dignity, QRCS said in a statement.
To that end, a total of $473,973 worth of winterisation and food aid was delivered. This comprised food items - with QRCS distributing 3,125 food parcels, each containing 83kg of food staples such as flour, rice, cooking oil, beans and iodised salt; and nonfood items - which included blankets, mattresses, pillows, winterisation clothes for adults and children, and tarpaulins, totalling 1,000 parcels, the statement explained.
Implemented in partnership with the Afghan Education and Aid Organisation, the distributions covered numerous districts and camps of internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the provinces of Badghis, Faryab and Herat.
Special emphasis was laid on families with widows, orphans, disabilities and other vulnerable groups, QRCS said.
Among the beneficiaries was Be Be Aisha Sayed Mohamed, a widow with a seven-member family from Faryab. They moved to Herat, where they found difficulty until finding a place at an IDP camp. Now, she has no work to earn a living, as the region is overall poor.
As she received the aid, Mohamed thanked QRCS for providing her with much-needed food items. “This charity has come on time, after we were affected by heavy rainfall and flash floods,” she said. “I wish that our other needs are met as well. We are a family in distress."
Saleh Mohamed, the head of a poor five-member family displaced from Herat, could not find a job. He described the one-month food provision as a “precious gift for his family and him”.
“This is the first humanitarian aid I get since eight months. Many thanks to QRCS and the Afghan Education and Aid Organisation for reaching out to such remote areas. There remain thousands who have not received any sort of aid. The western parts of the country experienced an unprecedented spell of heavy rains and floods,” he added.
