ASIA/AFGHANISTAN - Appeal of the UN Food Program for the assistance of 3.5 million people who may starve to death

Kabul - (Fides Agency) - Hunger alert in Afghanistan, where more than 3.5 million Afghanis depend on the food distributions of the UN World Food Program (WFP), in order to survive. But due to the lack of funds, the United Nations run the risk of not being able to meet the demand.
In particular, the food distributions may be interrupted to children in the schools, used as an incentive for them to go back to school. That is why the WFP launches an appeal to collect 52 million tons of food, worth about 40 million dollar, necessary to satisfy the Afghani population, in conditions of extreme necessity and misery, until the month of December. “The lack of resources leaves us without other options: we will be forced to cut the food distributions and our activities if we do not receive help”, said WFP envoy Charles Vicent.
The problem of hunger adds on to that of a country still not in peace after the political elections in 2005.
Poverty is connected to the long-standing problem of the refugees, which has gone on for decades. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees allowed more than 400 thousand Afghani refugees to return to their homes in Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran in 2005. They are recovering their place in their homeland society, which they had fled from due to the war, but now they find a situation of insecurity, unemployment and low development potentials, which generates further poverty.
Since the UNHCR repatriation program began, in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban regime, about 2.9 million afghani have been repatriated from Pakistan and 1.3 million from Iran.
Even the Church in Afghanistan is trying to contribute to the reconstruction of the country, with works of charity and solidarity. The small Catholic community in the country is led by the Barnabite Fr Giuseppe Moretti, the Superior of Missio sui iuris. The Barnabite brothers have been in charge of the pastoral care of the Catholic community in Afghanistan for more than 70 years. The Catholic community runs projects of humanitarian aid, social services for children, and development projects. Among others, the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity (Sisters of Mother Theresa) requested to start a community in Kabul. (Fides Agency 5/5/2006)