wfn.org | UMCOR helps Afghan villagers return home

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 20, 2003	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{157}

By United Methodist News Service

Villagers in the Bagram Province of Afghanistan are regaining their homes and
their lives with assistance from the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The agency's $635,847 Integrated Community Rehabilitation Project emphasizes
"high impact interventions" in a small area, according to Henry Hamilton,
UMCOR's head of mission in Kabul, Afghanistan.

"As far as I know, we are the only implementers doing such a thorough
project," Hamilton told United Methodist News Service in a March 19 e-mail
message. "We have made it possible for 70 percent of the exiled people to
return to our targeted area."

About 90 percent of the 200 homes that UMCOR committed to rebuild in Bagram
are complete. The project also includes rehabilitating water sources, such as
wells and irrigation networks; providing seeds, pesticides and fertilizers;
and providing income opportunities through loans. The villagers are active
participants in the work.

To help with the upcoming planting season, for example, UMCOR has distributed
spring wheat seed and fertilizer to 600 farmers and vineyards, as well as
orchard rootstock to 200 farmers. The total distribution is 30,000 plants,
according to Hamilton.

UMCOR also is putting the finishing touches on a 1,600-student high school in
the Panjshair Valley and is awaiting the arrival of 2,000 school kits for
distribution. "This project was actually a project being funded by Masood
(the Taliban opposition leader) before his assassination," he said.

Hamilton is trying to raise funds to expand UMCOR's work to surrounding
villages in the Shumali Plain, many of which were nearly destroyed. "Much of
this farming population is displaced in Kabul, many (living) in tents and
partially destroyed buildings," he added.

If the displaced people could be returned to their villages, they could raise
the agricultural products that nearby residents of Kabul must now import from
Pakistan, he explained.

"By putting a roof over their heads, assuring potable water access and
supplying them with the basic agricultural inputs to restart their economic
activities, these people could begin to rebuild their lives and communities
independently," Hamilton said. "I am passionately pushing for funds to
accomplish this vital mending of the communities around Kabul."

Donations to support UMCOR's work in Afghanistan should be earmarked for
Advance No. 982540-1, "Global Peace Building and Reconcilation -
Afghanistan." Checks can be dropped in local church collection plates or
mailed directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115.
Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800) 554-8583. Donations also
can be made online at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor, the agency's Web site.

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United Methodist News Service
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