Military

DATE=07/31/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N-H-C-R / AFGHANISTAN (L-O)

NUMBER=2-292623

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-N refugee agency says it is working to get shelter materials to hundreds-of-thousands of Afghans before winter. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva.

TEXT: More than one-million-300-thousand Afghan refugees and 400-thousand internally displaced people have gone back to the home communities they fled because of war and drought. Thousands of their homes have been destroyed or badly damaged, and winter is only a few months away.

The U-N refugee agency is working to help them. But agency spokesman Peter Kessler says delivering shelter materials, or kits, to thousands of Afghans living in remote, mountainous areas is difficult and time-consuming.

/// KESSLER ACT 1 ///

Afghanistan, being as vast as it is, the transportation problems being what they are, the fact that the rural areas are so vast and so remote and so poorly connected, getting the kits distributed is really a race against time.

/// END ACT ///

The shelter kits include wooden beams, frames for windows and doors, and material for latrines.

Mr. Kessler says U-N-H-C-R is having problems finding experienced partner agencies that can oversee the distribution and construction of the houses for families who need shelter assistance.

/// KESSLER ACT 2 ///

That means that some areas of the country, for example southern Afghanistan where we have seen more than 100-thousand Afghans return, we have only identified an N-G-O (non-governmental organization) capable of distributing some 200 shelters. Clearly, more has to be done in that area. But, as well, especially in central Afghanistan where there has been a major level of destruction as well as in the north and where we are still scrambling to find N-G-Os with staff capable to identify beneficiaries and to get the shelter materials distributed.

/// END ACT ///

The refugee agency had planned to provide housing material for 97-thousand families or nearly one-half million people. But, because refugee returns have exceeded expectations, the agency has run out of cash and has been forced to cut its shelter program by one-half.

Mr. Kessler says U-N-H-C-R is focusing its housing program on rural areas. He says another U-N agency, U-N Habitat, and its partners are helping returning Afghans find housing in city areas. (SIGNED)

NEB/LS/JWH/RAE