IFRC to begin drought relief operation

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies together with its counterpart, the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan, are preparing a large-scale food relief operation to thousands of families affected by the drought in the northern Sugdi province and in the southern Khatlon province of Tajikistan. "The main focus of this IFRC-operation is to assist those who have the worst possibilities to struggle through the winter by themselves," IFRC delegation head Lotta Relander told IRIN on Friday. In addition to elderly people with no relatives, the food aid would be distributed to families with many children, to those whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed land, as well as to single parent families, she said. In coordinating the programme, she added some 200 volunteers to carry out the distribution were being recruited and the beneficiary lists determined by elected officials and spot checked by Red Crescent field monitors. According to IFRC, during Soviet rule, agriculture and farms were based on collective and state farms. Since independence in 1991, however, neither farming machinery nor methods have been updated. Moreover, maintenance of irrigation systems has been poor or non-existent and while some farms have been privatised, many have collapsed. Rural unemployment is particularly severe in Tajikistan and drought conditions have since diminished any possibility of minimal subsistence being provided from people's small plots of land. The two-phased operation is a partial response to IFRC's original September appeal for US $12.7 million in aid for drought-stricken Tajikistan for 250,000 people of Khalon (South) and 50,000 people in Sugdi (North) provinces. "In short, the relief effort is making the best out of scarce resources," Relander said. "Besides causing an unfortunate delay, the poor response to the appeal has also meant that IFRC has had to concentrate on the most immediate needs and that, of course, is food," she added. In addition to its regular ongoing programmes in the Dushanbe area assisting some 30,000 people, set to begin the second week of February, IFRC will now provide 69,000 people in northern Tajikistan with a food basket of 100 kilos of wheat, flour, and eight litres of oil so they can make bread, a staple food in the country, as well as one kilo of salt. The second phase of the operation in the south, earmarking 59,000 beneficiaries, will begin in March in partnership with WFP. "This is a limited response," Relander said. "We are still seeking more funds in order to assist more people," she added.