WFP launches major food distribution in Herat

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday launched a major food distribution campaign in the western Afghan city of Herat, targeting 78 percent of the population. The 10-day campaign, aimed at distributing 2,641 mt of food, is the agency's second large-scale, city-wide distribution, after a similar operation was carried out in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in December. "Like Kabul, there are a large number of extremely vulnerable, food-insecure people in Herat, including a large number of widows, beggars and homeless," a WFP spokesman, Jordan Dey, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "It's aimed at the neediest of the needy." On Monday, food coupons were distributed, enabling each head of household of those who had been assessed as vulnerable to receive one 50 kg bag of wheat, beginning on Tuesday, a quantity which would last recipients about a month, Dey said. Food will be distributed in 10 districts, he added. To determine the vulnerability of recipients, a 250-strong all-female survey team conducted a week-long house-to-house assessment, which ended on 27 December. Many of the members of the team had previously worked as teachers, doctors or staff for humanitarian agencies, while others had not worked in years because of the ban on female employment imposed by the Taliban regime, Dey said. Of the city's 430,000 inhabitants, 338,000 would be recipients of the distribution. Commenting on the timeliness of the operation, Dey said there had been a lot of displacement from the western provinces of Ghowr and Badghis into Herat. "We have pre-positioned food in both provinces prior to doing this city-wide distribution in an effort to stem a further flow to Herat," he said. This food distribution is in addition to WFP's ongoing assistance programme for the five camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in and around the city, the largest of which is the Maslakh camp. "We provide food for 324,000 people in the Maslakh camp alone," Dey said. Quantifying the situation further, Dey said WFP was availing assistance to 950,000 IDPs throughout Afghanistan, a quarter to a third of whom lived in Maslakh. With 90 mt a day being distributed there alone, this translates into 2,700 mt a month or about the same amount as Monday's campaign for the city itself. WFP also distributes supplementary food at Maslakh to children under the age of 10, as well as to pregnant and lactating mothers. This week's campaign in Herat follows a similar distribution in Kabul in which 10,000 mt of food was distributed between 8 and 19 December, providing 1.3 million people with assistance, about a month after the city fell to Northern Alliance forces. Asked what lessons had been learned from the Kabul operation, Dey said security was extremely important, and the agency was continuing to work with local authorities to provide security and crowd control. "When you are doing a food distribution this size with people that are highly vulnerable, it is critically important to have a highly controlled distribution programme in place," he explained. "We have had isolated incidents in Kabul, and while we are not expecting that in Herat, we are taking preventive measures just the same." Aside from the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south of the country, the food agency has resumed operations in five of its six regional offices, including Kabul, Herat, the northern cities of Mazar-e Sharif and Faizabad (Feyzabad), and, with effect from Sunday, the eastern city of Jalalabad. In Jalalabad, the focus will be on vulnerable women and children - as well as people who have been displaced - many of whom are staying with host families outside the city. Asked when WFP would resume operations in Kandahar, Dey said: "Kandahar is still an insecure location, and we have yet to have UN clearance to operate there."