Oxfam's Emergency Aid in Afghanistan

Posted: 5 December 2001

Local partners and Oxfam staff are providing food, water, sanitation, public health, education, and mine removal to the people of Afghanistan.

What is Oxfam doing in Afghanistan?
Food distribution:

Around 80% of food distribution is done through local Afghan partners; 20%, directly by Oxfam local staff.

Oxfam food distribution currentlly reaches 1,560,000 people, equivalent to 25% of the vulnerable population according to UN's World Food Program.

In 13 provinces: Badakshan, Badghis, Baglan, Balj, Bamiyan, Farah, Faryab, Ghor, Herat, Kabul, Kapisa, Samangan, Zabul.

In some provinces, like Farah, Oxfam reaches 100% of the vulnerable population (280,000 people).

De-mining and clearing "bomblets" from US cluster bombs
There are 7-10 million landmines in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, 210,000 people have been injured or mutilated by mines.

Clearing a mine in Afghanistan costs around US $250.

Mine removal is carried out by our Afghan partner organization OMCAR (Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation).

Concentrated in the most bombed areas: Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat
Education.
307 "winter schools" in Hazarajat serve nearly 10,000 boys and girls

Winter schools offer three months of basic education to children who work on the farm during spring, summer and autumn.

The program began clandestinely six years ago because half of the children attending the schools were girls.

Oxfam trucks in educational material, pays some teacher salaries; in some areas, Oxfam pays teachers with food.

Health

Six mobile clinics in Kandahar, Ghazni, Bamiyan and Nangarhar, run by Oxfam partner Ibn Sina.

Each mobile clinic has one doctor, one lab technician, and one vaccination technician and the capacity to treat 30 patients per day.

Snow clearance in mountain passes
Oxfam partner, Coordinating Body for Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), will position bulldozers at strategic locations to keep mountain passes open for relief convoys during the winter months.

The bulldozers will be deployed in the mountain passes of Sabzak (Ghor province), Band-e-Bayand (Ghor), Nakhodi (Ghor and Farah) and Purchaman (Farah).

In the regions beyond these mountain passes, 32,000 tons of wheat are needed over the next five months.

What is Oxfam doing to help refugees in Pakistan?
With a team of engineers, Oxfam is providing water and sanitation in Roghani camp in Chaman (three hours from Quetta), home to about 15,000 people. Oxfam supplies water tanks, water trucks, chlorination, latrines, a pipe distribution system, and a health promotion program.

Water

In Roghani camp there is no local source of water, so Oxfam trucks it from a reservoir 15 kilometers away in four 11,000-liter trucks and three tractors with a capacity of 5,000 liters each. Each truck and tractor does several round trips per day.

Water is stored in ten Oxfam water tanks, most of which can hold 10,000 liters; others hold 5,000 liters.

Oxfam is providing 160,000 liters per day, covering all the camp's water needs. If necessary, supply could be increased to 500,000 liters per day.

Oxfam is setting up a pipe distribution system in the camp to improve access.

In addition, Oxfam provided three 10,000-liter water tanks to Killi Faiso camp, also in Chaman.

Sanitation

Oxfam has built more than 300 latrines in Roghani, each providing sanitation for an average of 40 people.

Latrines for females are designed differently, to provide double protection.

A team of health promoters works with the camp's population to increase latrine use and awareness of health and sanitation.

People in the camp come from all over Afghanistan, some from as far away as Herat. Many of them had to pay as much as US $200 each to cross the border.