Food Aide for Afghanistan's poor to be phased out.
Article by Sue Bailey.
Article:
KABUL (CP) - A long line of widows in tattered blue burkas waited for hours Sunday for Canadian-bought rations of flour, cooking oil, dried peas and medicine.
Younger women had weary children alongside them who rarely fussed. The eldest widows, with mouths full of rotting teeth, described illnesses they can't afford to treat.
They are the poorest of Afghanistan's poor, yet their monthly food support is to be cut off by April.
That's when the Canadian International Development Agency plans to replace the rations, worth C$2.5 million a year, with training designed to help widows support themselves.
"Food aid is always needed," says Fazila Banu Lily, program manager for CARE Afghanistan which has delivered the basic essentials for CIDA since 1996.
"But for a development organization to go with relief for a long time - it doesn't really fit with their objective."
The goal is to begin shifting Afghanistan toward self-sufficiency, she explained.
After 25 years of almost relentless conflict and displacement, Kabul alone has an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 war widows. Many are illiterate and at the mercy of in-laws to care for them. Widows have no property rights here.
It's not unusual in the bustling capital of Kabul to see women begging in heavy traffic, their hands outstretched as cars zip past.
About 7,300 widows now rely on the monthly food rations.
Sunday's lineup was a display not just of bleak hardship, however, but also dignity. Many of the widows want nothing more than a decent job.
Gulzia is one of them. The mother of three children aged four to nine years said she has no last name and wasn't sure of her age - a common trait among those who've never learned to read, write or do arithmetic.
Her husband died suddenly of a heart attack three years ago.
"No one helps me," she said of her in-laws through a translator. "I'm worrying about my life and about my children's future."
Training sounds good if she could find care for her youngest child, she says. "If there will be no other way for me, I'll take him with me."
Others said they don't know what they'll do if the food rations end.
"I am weak and can't work," said Bobogul, whose struggles to raise five children are complicated by a heart condition. Like Gulzia, she said she has no last name and was not sure of her age. Her husband, a vegetable vendor, was killed in a rocket attack eight years ago.
She and her children now live in one room of her father-in-law's house, she said.
"God forbid the rations will be finished."
Ottawa planned to end them last year but extended funding for another 12 months when the widows planned a protest - an extraordinary act for one of the country's most voiceless, marginalized groups.
Zainab Wahdi, deputy manager of women's programs for CARE Afghanistan, hopes Canada will reconsider.
"Vocational training is the best, but it will not be enough," she said.
Proposals being considered so far would only cover about 5,000 widows - and many will face child-care issues and resistance from men who don't want them to work, she added.
The reality is that thousands of women still desperately need help to feed their families, Wahdi said.
"We're afraid that if the money is cut off, many won't receive food or training. "Instead of putting all this money to fighting, I think widows should be the priority," she said of Canada's military efforts against anti-government forces in southern Afghanistan. "If they have money for fighting, it's better to have money for food too."
http://www.canoe.ca/sheilacopps
I can understand the need to help these women to be self reliant but I'd rather we gave them rations until they have been trained to work ergo feed themselves. This makes me cringe, I'd be happy to adopt an Afghan family. Why not have a benifit concert or something, I'd hate to see them abandoned.
Article by Sue Bailey.
Article:
KABUL (CP) - A long line of widows in tattered blue burkas waited for hours Sunday for Canadian-bought rations of flour, cooking oil, dried peas and medicine.
Younger women had weary children alongside them who rarely fussed. The eldest widows, with mouths full of rotting teeth, described illnesses they can't afford to treat.
They are the poorest of Afghanistan's poor, yet their monthly food support is to be cut off by April.
That's when the Canadian International Development Agency plans to replace the rations, worth C$2.5 million a year, with training designed to help widows support themselves.
"Food aid is always needed," says Fazila Banu Lily, program manager for CARE Afghanistan which has delivered the basic essentials for CIDA since 1996.
"But for a development organization to go with relief for a long time - it doesn't really fit with their objective."
The goal is to begin shifting Afghanistan toward self-sufficiency, she explained.
After 25 years of almost relentless conflict and displacement, Kabul alone has an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 war widows. Many are illiterate and at the mercy of in-laws to care for them. Widows have no property rights here.
It's not unusual in the bustling capital of Kabul to see women begging in heavy traffic, their hands outstretched as cars zip past.
About 7,300 widows now rely on the monthly food rations.
Sunday's lineup was a display not just of bleak hardship, however, but also dignity. Many of the widows want nothing more than a decent job.
Gulzia is one of them. The mother of three children aged four to nine years said she has no last name and wasn't sure of her age - a common trait among those who've never learned to read, write or do arithmetic.
Her husband died suddenly of a heart attack three years ago.
"No one helps me," she said of her in-laws through a translator. "I'm worrying about my life and about my children's future."
Training sounds good if she could find care for her youngest child, she says. "If there will be no other way for me, I'll take him with me."
Others said they don't know what they'll do if the food rations end.
"I am weak and can't work," said Bobogul, whose struggles to raise five children are complicated by a heart condition. Like Gulzia, she said she has no last name and was not sure of her age. Her husband, a vegetable vendor, was killed in a rocket attack eight years ago.
She and her children now live in one room of her father-in-law's house, she said.
"God forbid the rations will be finished."
Ottawa planned to end them last year but extended funding for another 12 months when the widows planned a protest - an extraordinary act for one of the country's most voiceless, marginalized groups.
Zainab Wahdi, deputy manager of women's programs for CARE Afghanistan, hopes Canada will reconsider.
"Vocational training is the best, but it will not be enough," she said.
Proposals being considered so far would only cover about 5,000 widows - and many will face child-care issues and resistance from men who don't want them to work, she added.
The reality is that thousands of women still desperately need help to feed their families, Wahdi said.
"We're afraid that if the money is cut off, many won't receive food or training. "Instead of putting all this money to fighting, I think widows should be the priority," she said of Canada's military efforts against anti-government forces in southern Afghanistan. "If they have money for fighting, it's better to have money for food too."
http://www.canoe.ca/sheilacopps
I can understand the need to help these women to be self reliant but I'd rather we gave them rations until they have been trained to work ergo feed themselves. This makes me cringe, I'd be happy to adopt an Afghan family. Why not have a benifit concert or something, I'd hate to see them abandoned.
