wfn.org | CWS PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN DIRECTOR VISITS TO THANK U.S. CHURCHES

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of Churches/Church World Service
Contact: NCC/CWS News, 212-870-2252
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org;
Web: www.churchworldservice.org & www.ncccusa.org
NCC/CWS3/12/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CWS PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN DIRECTOR VISITS TO THANK U.S. CHURCHES

	March 12, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - As Afghanistan moves toward reconstruction,
it "needs the international community much more today than ever," said
Marvin Parvez, director of the Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan
Office, visiting the United States through March 17.

"In a population of 20 million, six million Afghans are living in
famine-like conditions, four million of them are refugees, 1.2 million of
them are internally displaced," said Parvez, a Methodist.  "More than 25
percent of all Afghan children die before they reach age 5.  There are
700,000 widows in Afghanistan, 30,000 of them in Kabul alone -- as a result,
Kabul is known as the 'widows' capital.'"

Afghan refugees from southeastern Afghanistan are beginning to return home
from Pakistan, but refugees from around Kandahar, Afghanistan, are still
moving into Pakistan.  "The big need is security," Parvez said.  "People are
anxious to go back and rebuild their homes and their livelihoods."

That will require more presence by peacekeeping forces and a clear mandate.
"If security holds, large numbers of people will move back this spring from
Iran and Pakistan," he said, emphasizing the urgency for the U.S. government
and others to release the money they've pledged for reconstruction.

	Parvez, whose office is based in Karachi, is on a February 27-March 17
multi-state "thank you mission" to U.S. churches and others who have
supported CWS work in Afghanistan these past 20 years and work in Pakistan
for nearly 50 years.

When the Taliban came in, many governmental and non-governmental aid groups
pulled out of Afghanistan, but a number of faith-based organizations never
left, and the people of Afghanistan recognize that, he said.

Just since October, CWS has helped 17,000 Afghan families - some 100,000
refugees and internally displaced people -- with emergency food and shelter.
In addition, more than 400 Afghan refugee women in Quetta, Pakistan,
participated in a CWS Quilt Program, making 50,000 to 60,000 quilts for CWS
and other shelter programs and earning income for their families.

Currently CWS is sending more than $1 million of school kits, health
supplies and sewing materials to CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan to assist Afghans
affected by war and drought.  This shipment will include 19,750 school kits,
37,500 sewing kits and 14,105 health kits. Due to the magnitude of this
shipment, CWS is now asking congregations and other groups to help replenish
the supply, making it possible for CWS to ship additional shipments of kits
to a number of locales later this year.

CWS is looking to duplicate the Quetta quilt project in Kabul -- this time
to employ 1,400 women to make 160,000 quilts for shelter programs.  This
work will be a collaboration with the interim government's Ministry of
Women's Affairs, headed by Dr. Sima Samar, who ran a women's health care
ministry that's been part of CWS for 15 years.

Other plans include a shelter for street children in Kabul; assistance to
50,000 or more students in the Central Highlands with tables, chairs, desks
and school kits; an expansion of CWS-supported health programs, and
construction of permanent shelter for 2,000 families, especially in the
Shomali Valley, 40 kilometres north of Kabul, an area "that was the
frontline, where the Taliban destroyed everything."

"A lot of news out of Afghanistan is bad news" Parvez said, "but there is
good news, too, about how churches, CROP WALKS and others are helping people
in need."

It's tragic, he said, that "it took Sept. 11 for people to focus back on
Afghanistan and the problems of 23 years. If we don't do the whole journey
with the Afghans this time we will end up at the same place as in the
1980s."

The need, he said, is "humongous.  Lives, livelihoods and infrastructure
have been destroyed." Yet, Parvez said: "Now, I'm hopeful. That comes from
the people of Afghanistan.  They are happy, laughing, listening to music,
sick of poverty and fighting, they want things to improve."

	Parvez' first U.S. stop was Michigan, to brief the Reformed Church in
America (RCA) and the CWS regional CROP office on the current situation in
Afghanistan and Pakistan and CWS work under way there.

Parvez was also in New York to brief CWS cross-program staff,
denominational, ecumenical and secular media and the United Methodist
Committee on Relief (UMCOR) on the current status of CWS relief efforts in
Afghanistan/Pakistan, as well as discussing and planning the transition from
emergency aid to long-term recovery. After New York, Parvez headed to the
United Church of Christ (UCC) headquarters in Cleveland, and on to CWS
regional CROP office in Charlotte, N.C., and staff meetings in Florida.

-end-