KABUL – A hundred Afghani families, rendered poor after the Taliban takeover last year, received about a month’s supply of essential food items from a Malaysian aid group and its local partner.
Global Peace Mission (GPM) Malaysia and the Afghan Welfare Society distributed oil, flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, beans, salt and tea at the Afghan Institute of Higher Education in Kabul, yesterday.
GPM Chair Datuk Ahmad Azam Ab Rahman told Bernama the necessities were purchased locally to aid the local economy.
“So we bring in money from the start and buy the goods here. Thank Allah, we see in Kabul that the supplies are available here. So with this method, we can revitalise the local economy,” he said.
He said the groups were donating these items to families they had determined were the neediest, based on their income relative to their family size.
He hoped this will encourage Malaysians and Malaysian NGOs to join in and continue relief efforts in coordination with GPM to help needy Afghans, especially those who fell under the poverty level practically overnight.
“Some are suddenly poor because they lost their job. Others have been poor for a long time,” he said.
Afghanistan is suffering through economic, banking and humanitarian crises. When the US withdrew and the Taliban took over in August 2021, it ended the flow of international funds pledged for rebuilding Afghanistan. Millions of people lost their jobs. Many who were lucky enough to keep their jobs have not been paid for months.
One of them is 22-year old Malika Isfanyar, a religious teacher at a private madrasah (Islamic school), who is also the sole breadwinner for her family of 13. She told Bernama through an interpreter that she had not gotten her AFN6,000 (RM277) monthly salary since the Taliban came to power, forcing her family to survive on their savings.
“The savings are gone now, so that’s why we’re asking for help,” she said, adding she hoped to be paid soon.
The UN World Food Programme reported recently that 95 per cent of the population in Afghanistan did not have enough to eat, with some 8.7 million people on the brink of starvation. – Bernama, February 27, 2022
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