wfn.org | CWS continues work in Pakistan/Afghanistan

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 8, 2002  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71BP{091}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - If the situation in Afghanistan stabilizes this spring,
more of its citizens will return from places of refuge in Pakistan and Iran,
according to a church relief worker.

"They just need security," said Marvin Parvez, who has served as director of
the Church World Service (CWS) office for Pakistan/Afghanistan since 1994.
"I think they're anxious to go back and rebuild their homes and their
livelihoods."

Parvez, who was in the United States to report on the situation in Central
Asia and thank churches for their financial support, visited the National
Council of Churches' offices in New York on March 7. A Pakistani and the son
of a Methodist minister, he is a member of the Methodist Church of Pakistan,
one of the denominations belonging to the unified Church of Pakistan. CWS is
the global humanitarian response ministry of the NCC.

Providing security, in his opinion, will mean establishing a more
intentional presence for international peacekeeping forces, as well as
offering assistance in developing the country. "If we don't do the whole
journey with the Afghans this time, we will repeat the mistakes of the
1980s," he said.

The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. During that time,
the CIA established covert operations there and, with Pakistan's
intelligence service, recruited and trained thousands of Muslim volunteer
fighters, including Osama bin Laden. U.S. interest in the region diminished
after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Following several years of civil war,
the Taliban movement swept to power in 1996.

Even before the events of Sept. 11, war-related internal displacement of
citizens, combined with the effects of a three-year drought, had created
what the United Nations called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Parvez noted that while other organizations had left the country in the
1980s, "the churches never abandoned the people in Afghanistan," despite
difficulties caused by the increasingly repressive Taliban rule. The CWS has
180 staff members and 120 volunteers serving its five offices in Pakistan
and two offices in Afghanistan.

Since Sept. 11, CWS has responded to the crisis by providing emergency food
and shelter to more than 100,000 Afghans, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Funding has come through a $6.28 million appeal, which has included a
commitment of nearly $500,000 from the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR), he said. In the past, United Methodists also have supported CWS
women's programs for vocational training and health care in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, along with disaster management and emergency needs.

Parvez voiced appreciation for the support shown by a fact-finding United
Methodist delegation of four bishops and two top agency executives that
visited Pakistan in February. 

Plans are in the works to expand health programs for women and children,
provide permanent shelter for more than 2,000 Afghan families and start a
shelter for street children in Kabul. A successful quilting project in
Pakistan, employing some 400 Afghan refugee women, will be extended to
Kabul, where 1,400 women would make quilts. CWS also wants to provide desks,
chairs and school kits to more than 50,000 students in Afghanistan's central
highlands.   

CWS was one of more than 50 nongovernmental organization (NGO) offices
looted by a local warlord in Jalalabad last fall, but pressure from local
staff and the community resulted in the return of the agency's vehicles and
other possessions. "We've always emphasized our humanitarian credentials,"
Parvez explained. "Anybody who steals from CWS is not stealing from the
program, they're stealing from Afghans."

CWS also will continue its advocacy work on human rights issues in Pakistan
- difficult in a country where women, Christians and other minorities are
considered to have half the value of a Muslim male, Parvez said. More than
200 Christians, for example, face a possible death penalty due to false
charges under Pakistan's blasphemy law, and hundreds of women die in
family-related "honor killings" simply because they want to choose their own
husbands.

Parvez hopes the CWS staff, by virtue of its gender, ethnic and religious
diversity as well as dedication to duty, can serve as a role model for
others in the area. "I think they (staff) truly believe that what we're
trying to do is going to make our country and our region stronger."

He also encouraged churches in the United States to start dialogues among
various religions, particularly with Muslims. "Islam is a very progressive
and peaceful religion," he said. "We need to understand their theology."

More information on CWS can be found at www.churchworldservice.org, the
agency's Web site. Donations can be made online or by credit card at (800)
297-1516.

Donations, specified for Afghanistan, also can be made through UMCOR Advance
No. 901125-3, "Love in the Midst of Tragedy." Checks can be dropped in
church collection plates or mailed to 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York,
NY 10115. Credit-card gifts can be made by calling (800) 554-8583.
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United Methodist News Service
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