Military

DATE=7/2/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-291689

TITLE=W-F-P / AFGHANISTAN (L-O)

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-N World Food Program says it has been forced to suspend some of its projects in Afghanistan because it is running out of money. Lisa Schlein has details from Geneva.

TEXT: The World Food Program says all the money it has on hand has to go to maintain basic feeding programs for millions of people who depend on this food for their survival.

W-F-P spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says the shortage of money means that most projects not directly related to these programs will have be cut.

/// BERTHIAUME ACT ///

Because we do not have enough money, we have cut all those programs that are helpful for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the country. Programs that we call Food-for-Work. People are paid in food to repair a house, a road, a school, a clinic. Or again, we had a fantastic project for school feeding for one-million kids. A big part of that program is on hold because we do not have the money.

/// END ACT ///

Under W-F-P's school feeding program, parents had an incentive to allow their children to attend school because they knew they would get food. Ms. Berthiaume says she is particularly worried about what will happen to young girls now that the project is being halted.

If W-F-P is unable to feed them, she fears many parents will send their daughters to work. Or, in some cases, she says parents will sell their daughters to get food.

Earlier in the year, W-F-P appealed for 285-million U-S dollars to feed about nine million Afghans, but it is still about 100-million dollars short of that goal.

Ms. Berthiaume says the United States has contributed 40-percent of the money received. The rest has come from Japan and the countries of Western Europe. She says Arab countries as well as most Asian countries have contributed nothing.

/// 2ND BERTHIAUME ACT ///

It is important that donor countries...and now, we are especially calling to Gulf countries and Asia, to do their share. Thanks to the generosity of the international community, we have avoided a famine last year. So, let us not go back to there. We need help.

/// END ACT ///

The W-F-P spokeswoman says Afghanistan has entered the so-called hunger season, the period before the harvest when most people in Afghanistan have eaten all their food reserves. She says money is critically needed now to tide people over until the harvest in August. (SIGNED)

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