The World Food Program (WFP) for Afghanistan has said that the economic situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and tens of millions of people in this country needs food aid.
This comes amid of increasing poverty in the country. Most of the population living in remote areas of the country has no access to healthy food.
Shah Gul and Shakiba, two residents of Kabul, are facing with various economic problems. In interviews with The Kabul Times said they used to sit in front of bakeries if somebody bought them bread to eat.
“We go and roam on streets to get bread for our children. As you witness and see, we have no other choice, except begging on the streets. You see most of the women are miserable and poor; therefore, they turn to beg on streets,” Shakiba said.
Among the people sitting on the streets or in front of bakeries in Kabul are those who had businesses in the past, but now they are unemployed. They have no other choice, except begging or roaming on streets to sell something and earn money.
May Ellen, head of the WFP for Afghanistan, has said that the organization needs global support to help and deal with the hunger of the people in Afghanistan. WFP said that it had helped 20 million people in Afghanistan so far. According to Ellen, six million people are on the verge of starvation and cannot find one meal a day. She added that the focus of this institution is to help the hungry, 960 million dollars are needed by the end of this year.
“Some resources are available and we will get $100 million for winter aid for remote areas, but we will have a lot of shortages, what we will do is to prioritize the sectors that are facing severe hunger, where malnutrition has become a big problem. I hope we get more resources,” said Ellen.
The head of the WFP in Afghanistan considers the provinces of Ghor, Bamyan, Badakhshan and Badghis to be very needy and added that the organization will increase its assistance to them in the coming months.
“For this reason, our prices are high and our assistance is given every month, and those who are in very vulnerable sectors receive assistance for twelve months in a year, and those who are in other sectors receive assistance eight times a year they get.
Based on the investigation of WFP, 18.9 million people live in severe hunger and providing assistance to homeless women, disabled families and families with many children in need are prioritized.
Meanwhile, the UN’s humanitarian chief has also urged donors to restore funding for Afghanistan, warning that 6 million Afghans are at risk of famine while more than half of the country’s 39 million people need humanitarian help.
It’s time that the international community give hands to the people of Afghanistan and provide more aid to the people. Besides, the U.S. should release the frozen assets of Afghanistan’s central bank so that all businesses would start and help in reduction of poverty in the country.
Shukria Kohistani
WFP asking for global support to help deal with hunger in Afghanistan
