NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
November 20 , 2001
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
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Lutherans To Stand With Africa In Washington AIDS Event
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Hopes High, Deliveries Still Low For Aid In Afghanistan
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Analysis Of Afghan Food Aid: Twice What it Was, Half Of What It Should Be
LUTHERANS TO STAND WITH AFRICA IN WASHINGTON AIDS EVENT
Baltimore, November 20, 2001 -- As advocate and example of the church fighting AIDS, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the programs of Lutheran World Relief in Africa will be highlighted at an international event in Washington for World AIDS Day this year.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is mounting a new initiative to increase support for faith-based and community organizations tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic overseas. ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson will join the Anglican archbishop of South Africa and a Ugandan Muslim leader for the event November 30 at the National Press Club. A panel discussion and press conference are planned.
As part of the forthcoming initiative, USAID and LWR will cooperate in making special small grants and sharing model projects between community and faith-based organizations in Africa.
The Lutheran presence at the event has roots that reach thousands of Lutheran parishes in the U.S. as well as Africa. The ELCA, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and LWR are currently in the first year of a "Stand With Africa" campaign. The three-year effort is supporting African churches and communities in AIDS prevention and care-giving activities.
Lutheran World Relief is supported by the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, LCMS World Relief, individuals and parish groups.
HOPES HIGH, DELIVERIES STILL LOW FOR AID IN AFGHANISTAN
[With reporting by Paul Jeffrey in Pakistan for Action by Churches Together.]
Baltimore, November 20, 2001 -- While hopes of helping hungry Afghans have soared as the Taliban withdraw from much of Afghanistan, prospects for getting on with the job are still far from certain.
Aid workers on both sides of the country are finalizing plans for emergency deliveries of aid stocks on hand. But blocked borders, banditry, general insecurity and difficult access to the neediest areas are still delaying most activity, Lutheran World Relief partner organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan report.
In the western city of Heart local aid staff have begun local distributions of food from a United Nations stockpile. But gaining secure access to four drought-stricken provinces in the mountains of north central Afghanistan, the area of greatest concern to them, is still out of the question. These areas have received little or nothing in food aid since early September. In Heart and other Afghan centers, local staff supported by the international emergency coalition ACT, have continued to work as they were able throughout the war.
In the east, at the border crossing from Pakistan to Jalalabad, a truck carrying 400 tents for displaced families inside Afghanistan has been stuck for more than a week. Drivers fear Taliban elements, Northern Alliance soldiers, U.S. bombers and heavily armed bandits on the route ahead, which leads to Kabul.
In the area around Jalalabad, said Afghan aid official Mohammed Naeem, "many Taliban just took off their turbans and put on other hats." Naeem is the director of an ACT-related relief group.
Urgently needed tents, blankets and other winter supplies stockpiled in Peshawar, Pakistan, are due to pass through the area en route for Kabul in the next few days.
Despite the extension of Northern Alliance control in the north, aid workers report sporadic killings and looting of relief supplies in areas now free of Taliban control. Several vehicles belonging to the United Nations and private aid agencies have been stolen in the chaos.
ANALYSIS OF AFGHAN FOOD AID: TWICE WHAT IT WAS, HALF OF WHAT IT SHOULD BE
Baltimore, November 20, 2001 -- Aid deliveries into Afghanistan and within the country are still low but better than they have been for much of the crisis so far, according to an independent analysis of United Nations World Food Program statistics. A stable political and security environment is the key to effective distribution and must be established, says the study by Christian Aid, a U.K.-based humanitarian agency.
Last week 58 percent of the food aid that the United Nations says is needed in Afghanistan entered the country, according to Christian Aid's analysis. However, since the crisis began on September 11 only 25 per cent of the required food aid has been transported.
Rates for actual distribution of food to beneficiaries are similar -- about 60 percent of requirements in November distributed so far but only 25 percent of the amount needed has reached hungry people since early September. More than five million Afghans need food aid, according to the WFP.
Nick Guttman, Christian Aid's emergency manager, welcomes the recent improvements in aid delivery to Afghanistan. However, he warns that distribution networks remain fragile and there are some areas which have received virtually no food for months. "The situation in the highlands is critical. We are particularly concerned about the provinces of Ghor and Badgis where since 11 September, according to our local staff, almost no food has got through. We are now focusing our efforts on these areas," he says.
The people living in the highlands have been isolated by war, will soon be cut off by snow and are suffering their fourth year of a severe drought.
Christian Aid is a long-time partner of Lutheran World Relief and fellow member of the international emergency alliance ACT.
Read LWR's Afghanistan Fact Sheet.
