Oxfam Helps Cold-Stricken Families in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Posted: 7 February 2008

Severe cold and snow have gripped Afghanistan, taking the lives of 500 people and blocking the passage of supplies. In Pakistan, earthquake-hit families struggle through another winter.

The harshest winter in 30 years has descended on the western and central-western provinces of Afghanistan, killing more than 500 people there. In neighboring Pakistan, where an earthquake in 2005 wrecked or severely damaged 400,000 homes, many families are shivering through another frigid season in temporary shelters.

Oxfam, together with local partner organizations, has launched emergency responses in both countries to help people survive the dark winter months.

While the snow has mounted and the temperature has plunged to the low teens in parts of Afghanistan, most of those who have lost their lives since December were either elderly people or children. And the extreme conditions continue to make life miserable for tens of thousands of others.

With a local organization called Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, or CHA, Oxfam’s program will help 11,760 people in four provinces of Afghanistan: Balkh, Herat, Ghor, and Farah. Heavy snowfall has cut off some of the villages and blocked the passage of food and fuel.

The $53,000, two-month program will provide blankets for 500 families, coal for 230 households, and a cash-for-work initiative that will employ 150 people to help clear snow from about 25 miles of road while providing families with sorely needed income. Some of the families, forcibly relocated from Iran last year, are living in primitive conditions in camps for displaced people.

Many of the families in the region depend on their livestock—goats, chickens, cows—to supply about a third of their annual earnings. But the severe weather has taken a toll on the animals, too. About 18,000 heads of cattle have died recently.

“These are high-altitude villages prone to snow, but this year the snow and intensity of the cold are particularly bad,” said Kenny Rae, an Oxfam humanitarian response specialist. While Rae can’t say if the current conditions are linked to global climate change, it’s clear that the demand on aid groups is growing as a consequence of unpredictable weather.

“Increasingly we’re having to address the needs of people facing extreme conditions,” said Rae. “We’re also providing support for Pakistan this winter.”

That $98,000 six-month program started in November with the goal of helping remote communities function as normally as possible through the winter. The high cost of building materials has slowed the pace of reconstruction in many of these communities, and as a result homes are not yet complete and children are attending school either in the open air or under the faintest protection of tents or sheets.

Working with three local partners in northern Pakistan, Oxfam is distributing a range of goods to get people through the winter including stoves and the kerosene to fuel them, floor insulation, warm clothing for school children, blankets for newborn babies, winter shoes for elderly women, food, and tarps.