CHURCH WORLD SERVICE: EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM
SITUATION REPORT: PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN EMERGENCY
(Updates information relevant to Appeal #6930, issued Oct. 10, for $6.28
million.)
November 20, 2001


SITUATION: Despite the fall of Kabul and other key cities in Afghanistan
to the US-backed northern alliance, the situation in Afghanistan remains
unstable and uncertain, with the northern alliance telling the Taliban to
either surrender the city of Kunduz in three days or face assault, Reuters
reported today.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and Afghanistan's ethnic groups are to meet
next week to build a broad-based government, the BBC reported. This comes
as thousands of Afghan refugees continue to cross into Pakistan daily,
according to the United Nations.

These developments are occurring amid continuing signs of deterioration
within Afghanistan, reports Paul Jeffrey, a communicator on assignment in
Pakistan for the Action by Churches Together (ACT) International network.
"After surviving years of drought, land mines, and chronic internecine
fighting, war-weary Afghans now face a chaotic future as feuding warlords
carve their country into separate fiefdoms," he reported Nov. 19.

In ominous sign about deteriorating situation was a declaration from the
alliance warlords controlling Kabul that all international agencies and
non-governmental organizations must cease their humanitarian efforts for
the next week - presumably to ensure that they have complete control,
without competition from anyone, Jeffrey reported.

CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan Director Marvin Parvez said the situation
confirms the observation that "the only thing that is currently
predictable about the situation in Afghanistan is that it is totally
unpredictable," he said. "Situations in many of the towns and cities in
Afghanistan are very chaotic at this time."


RESPONSE: One point of concern for CWS amid the current instability is in
Jalalabad, where a CWS-supported clinic/medical program has had to close
in recent days due to security concerns. The clinic is expected to reopen.

While the situation in Afghanistan remains unstable, CWS has been able to
distribute 6,000 Family Shelter Kits and supplementary food parcels to
internally-displaced Afghan families in central and northern areas of
Afghanistan, and 3,000 to Afghan refugee families in Pakistan.

The 9,000 shelter kits and supplementary food parcels are part of a
planned delivery to 17,000 uprooted families, some 119,000 people. The
Family Shelter Kits include a tent, one ground sheet, one plastic tarp,
and four blankets (or quilts), and cost $90 each. The supplementary food
rations include beans, rice, wheat, cooking oil, sugar, and tea, and cost
$256 for a family for 6 months.

In addition, some 400 Afghan refugee women in Pakistan are earning a small
income in a CWS-sponsored project to make 60,000 quilts for distribution
to refugee families. CWS is using 20,000 of the quilts in Family Shelter
Kits. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF are
purchasing the other 40,000 quilts for use in their emergency programs.

The CWS appeal (#6390)is for $6.28 million to provide emergency food and
shelter for Afghan families in need, both in Afghanistan and in refugee
camps in Pakistan.

Pakistan/Afghanistan Emergency, Account #6930, CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, P.O.
Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515.

On-line contributions to: www.churchworldservice.org

Call the CWS HOTLINE for updates: (800) 297-1516.

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is
responding, contact CWS Emergency Response.

Telephone: (212) 870-3151
E-mail: cherlinger@ncccusa.org
After-hours emergency pager: (800) 780-0853
Web site: www.cwserp.org


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