The HDF Provincial Reconstruction Team (HUN PRT) continues to provide assistance for the poor in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. Last time the children living in the orphanage of Pol-e Khomri and the occupants of the widows’ house in Deh Sallah District received care packages from the Hungarians.
Last month the HUN PRT distributed a total of 200 food packages among the people in need. The circle of beneficiaries was selected by the head of the Afghan Womens’ Affairs Office, and a female shura member. The recipients of the packages included lone mothers suffering from deprivation, and women living together with disabled family members. The aid was especially of vital importance for those whose husbands are unable to work for some reason, because even today, women can rather rarely find jobs and earn an income.
Since the spring of 2011, the HUN PRT visited the orphanage in Pol-e Khomri for the second time, where children live under rather adverse circumstances that do not meet even the local standards. For example, there is a room accommodating eight persons where currently 15 children must sleep together. The packages the orphans have received include children’s wear, blankets, story-books, toys, detergents, dishwashing liquids, school supplies and kitchen utensils in a value of around 3,000 USD which comes from the PRT’s own funding and the donation of Dorcas Aid Hungary.
The HUN PRT recently distributed aid at another location, in the widows’ house in Del Sallah District where more than 40 widows live, together with nearly 100 children. These women lost their husbands either in the wars that have been raging around the country for decades or in mine- and unexploded ordnance (UXO)-related accidents. The leader of the district shura has been renting the building for the widows for years, which gives them shelter and a moderate income by letting them work in the small workshop established inside.
It was in 2009 that the HUN PRT-6 donated a couple of sewing machines to the workshop and some fabric for the widows to work with, but the PRT has not visited the place since. This time, in an effort to provide more amenities – donated by the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid, and the Human Services Office of the HDF 5th ‘Bocskai István’ Infantry Brigade of Debrecen –, the HUN PRT delivered sewing and embroidery machines, fabric, wool, blankets, duvets, dishes, women’s and children’s wear, shoes, hygiene packs and toys, which will provide a further source of income for the poverty-stricken women. The HUN PRT hired a local contractor, who transported the truckload of material to the site.
The HUN PRT S9 cell would like to take this opportunity to say thanks for the several tons of humanitarian aid donated and collected in Hungary and transported to Afghanistan, which has been a great assistance to the work of the PRT S9 and enhanced the recognition of the HUN PRT.
(Ministry of Defence)
