food distribution

In early June, four guys from my home town came to Afghanistan to make a documentary.  One of the first things that we did was a food distribution in Balkh city (about 45 minutes from Mazar).  My friend, F. who runs a kindergarten heard that there were many extremely poor people there.  One of her teachers, S. had come to her to ask if we could help.

After the horrible winter that we had, food prices soared (though this was not just in Afghanistan, it was a global price increase).  Some children in the States raised $2000 so that we could do a larger distribution.  We reckoned that with that amount of money, we could buy enough food to feed 30 families for a week.  

food for a family for a week

 

We had heard many horror stories about food distributions.  People are so desperate to feed their families, that they become violent and people who are not part of the distribution begin to crawl over walls and  riots start. So, a friend who had done this before gave us a very detailed plan to keep things organized, but we also had an escape plan if things got crazy.

S. had met with the kalontar (like an elder) of the village and made a list of families with the biggest needs.  We then made a date and headed out.

Well, the plan went flawlessly.  It went so quietly and smoothly, it was almost boring (though the joy of helping these families was very exciting)

My film guys and some local Afghan men lined up all of the food on a raised porch-like area.  Each family was to receive a big bag of flour, a bag of rice, a bottle of oil, and  a "goody" bag with beans, salt, soap, and matches. The women were all lined up against a wall, and their men were on the other side of the courtyard.  We organized it so that when we called a name, the family had to come and get their food, and they had to be totally gone before we called another name.  It worked really well.

While we were handing out the food, S. whispered the families' stories to me.  Some were incredibly sad.  Widows, men that are too weak to work, men that want to work, but nothing can be found because of the economic conditions.  Older sons who would usually work for their family died in accidents or of illnesses.  One of the most common though, was that the old (I mean like 70 year old) men were still producing babies, though they were too old to work, so these poor younger women (sometimes teenagers) are married off (actually sold) as second or third wives, have no way to feed their children.

This is a huge problem in Afghanistan. The society itself has social rules about helping widows, but if the husband is still alive, they won't help, no matter how old, weak, or sick.  So many of the younger women pray every day that their husbands will die so they can get on the dole.  This is the plight of women in Afghanistan. 

When we were finished, we had enough money left over, so F. went with A. two weeks later and gave out food to 10 more families.  That was the day before I went into the hospital.