Afghanistan - Options to help refugees

Note from Les Lee, District 1260 International Committee Chairman
13 Oct 2001 /
[With a plea for more aquaboxes  on 31 Oct 2001]

Dear Everyone

I thought it might be helpful for you to have an update re the USA Bombings and Afghanistan.

It seems as if there is going to be a considerable number of refugees from Afghanistan in the next few weeks. There was a problem before the recent events due to a prolonged drought and this was causing many to leave the country. Now the numbers will be greater.

Photo: from Save the Children website

RIBI President David has decided that there will be no specific RIBI Appeal and that Clubs or District should respond as they feel best.

There is no Rotary presence in Afghanistan and could not control funds being sent there. A better way of help is to support the agencies in the area.

The British Red Cross* and Save the Children* are preparing for major numbers of refugees and will need support. Up to date details can be found on their websites. [The appendix below gives the details when I last checked].  

The British Red Cross Afghan Crisis Appeal, Freepost MID 21782, Halesowen, B63 3DR.
Cheques payable to "British Red Cross Afghan Crisis Appeal"

Save the Children There is a Save the Children Afghan Refugee Crisis Appeal. 
Save the Children Dept 0050049, Freepost,17 Grove Lane London SE5 8BR

UNICEF ,08457 - 312 UNICEF Room LF,  Freepost Chelmsford CM2 8VR

Another organisation working in the area is Ockenden International. It has teams in both Iran and Afghanistan and is planning to work in three camps (15,000) in each. Ockenden contact is Rosalyn Taylor at 01483 772012 or at e-mail oi@ockenden.org.uk   Address: Ockenden International Trust, Consitution Hill, Woking, Surrey GU22 7UU.

The other way of help is through the boxes - Aquaboxes, Shelter Boxes and Emergency boxes. [Details can be found within this website, under Project information and contacts]

Shelter box has sent 50 boxes through Feed the Children. Aquaboxes is actively seeking help to get boxes transported and more importantly seeking an agency to monitor the use of the boxes to ensure the effective use of them and to ensure that they are distributed and used correctly. At present there are several Aquaboxes in stock. As soon as the recipients and transport can be organised boxes will be sent out and then more will be needed. It is felt that the Standard boxes with western clothing and goods will not be appropriate and so the boxes planned to be sent are Aquabox 30's. These cost £250 per box.

As soon as I hear that the problems have been overcome I will let you know.

Almost certainly more boxes will be needed in the next few months.

I hope this information is of help

Thanks

Les Lee

*APPENDIX:

1. Save the Children responds to Afghanistan crisis, 28 September 2001

Latest emergency statement: The lives of millions of Afghans, especially children, are at risk during the coming months. If life-saving humanitarian aid programmes providing food, health care and shelter are unable to continue operating in Afghanistan, we will undoubtedly be facing a major humanitarian disaster.

Save the Children has six sub-offices in Afghanistan with over 200 local staff who, despite the current difficulties, continue to deliver nutrition and health programmes within Afghanistan. Save the Children is also working to meet the needs of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Mike Gaouette, Save the Children's Director of Emergencies says: "Before 11 September the situation for children in Afghanistan was already desperate. This is a country where one in four children die before the age of five; almost half of all under fives are moderately to severely underweight; and 75 per cent of Afghans have no access to safe water or basic health care. Many children and their families are now displaced inside Afghanistan as winter approaches these kids will be in urgent need of food, shelter and warm blankets."

Save the Children is making preparations to bolster relief activities both within Afghanistan, including the Northern Territories and to refugees in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Save the Children is planning to provide food aid for 180,000 especially vulnerable people in Faryab Province and the Mazar-I-Sharif camp. Shelter and other essential items such as blankets and children's clothing will reach 55,000 internally displaced in northern Afghanistan and 50,000 anticipated refugees. Save the Children is also making provision for basic health care in Kabul and the Northern Territories, establishing basic health clinics in three camps and providing materials for pre-primary and primary education within the camps.

2. British Red Cross

Afghan Crisis What is the current situation?

Red Cross Response: The ICRC's operational priority is to provide emergency assistance to internally displaced persons and those remaining in Afghanistan. With some 1,000 local staff still in the country, the ICRC is continuing to implement its Afghan programme, providing food and medical assistance, as well as continuing its orthopaedic, water and sanitation activities.

To prepare for a possible upsurge in fighting or massive displacement within Afghanistan, the ICRC is developing its capacity to provide emergency assistance, targeting up to 540,000 people, for distribution of food, shelter and medical assistance. In order to pre-position stocks of  food and non-food items in neighbouring countries, and to adapt its logistics capacity, the ICRC has issued an appeal for an additional £10 million.

In Pakistan, the Federation and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society will provide shelter for up to 250,000 refugees. Tents and other relief items are already being pre-positioned in Quetta and Peshawar. Meanwhile, plans for setting up 25 basic health care units are also underway and the first shipment of water and sanitation supplies, including water purification tablets and water storage facilities, is due to arrive in the country later this week.

The bulk of Red Cross and Red Crescent relief aid is being planned for Pakistan, Iran and the three Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In Iran, home to already more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees, the Iranian Red Crescent Society, with support from the Federation, will cover the needs for up to 150,000 potential refugees. Health care through mobile clinics and a field hospital will also be provided.

The BRCS has already allocated £3 million from the Department for International Development (DFID) to the ICRC and Federation appeals, and will seek to continue to support the Movement both financially and through the provision of relief goods and delegates.

First relief supplies arrive in Peshawar (Pakistan) Working through the night, a team of Pakistani labourers hurriedly offloaded a huge Ilyushin 76 transport plane carrying 35 tonnes of Spanish Red Cross relief stores to Peshawar on Friday. The flight marks the beginning of a logistics pipeline that is designed to preposition material for setting up refugee camps in Pakistan in case of an influx of refugees from Afghanistan.

Overseeing the process at Peshawar airport was the energetic Pakistan Red Crescent branch secretary Syed Ali Hassan, who runs the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) branch. "These are relief items from the Spanish Red Cross - tents, jerry cans, tarpaulin and packaged high-energy food," Hassan said. "We will take this to the warehouse, and once camps are selected we shall distribute this amongst the refugees."

This first consignment filled the Red Crescent warehouse in Peshawar but another warehouse has already been selected and may be used for water and sanitation material coming on Monday from the Austrian Red Cross. "The importance of this material is that it will enable us to respond quickly to an emergency," Hassan said. "We know from experience what is involved in assisting Afghan refugees; we have a 14 - 15 year experience from previous crises."

The prepositioning of relief goods in Peshawar - as well as in Quetta in Baluchistan to the south - is part of the plan which the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has for dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. As 1,200 staff of the Afghan Red Crescent and 1,000 local staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross maintain assistance to Afghans within Afghanistan under difficult circumstances, the Federation is gearing up for what may become a massive wave of refugees into the neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan.

The Federation“s focus is on providing shelter, clean water and health care in camps that are expected to average 10,000 inhabitants. The Pakistan Red Crescent is an experienced provider of health care and in NWFP it runs 28 Mother and Child Health clinics funded by the German Red Cross. Any refugees coming across the border are likely to be malnourished, tired and exposed to disease.

Teams from the government of Pakistan and UNHCR have been surveying sites near the border with Afghanistan for possible use as refugee camps. There is a sense of urgency to the preparations; anything could happen in Afghanistan, sending desperate civilians scrambling for safety in neighbouring countries.

When and if that happens, preparedness is all that counts.

Ends