Tajikistan near starvation

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Tajikistan near starvation Sunday, February 11, 2001 By Associated Press An old woman steals gifts left in a graveyard to sell for food. A microbiologist sells pickled vegetables on the street. A schoolteacher waits all day for a bag of wheat to feed her daughter. Hunger pervades Tajikistan, where drought, unemployment and the unhealed wounds of war have left the country on the verge of starvation. The United Nations World Food Program has been feeding many of the poorest, but the program's cupboards are now bare. If donor countries don't agree to send more money during an urgent appeal in Geneva on Friday, the program says its aid will end on Feb. 16. "We have no food in our warehouse. Our balance is zero," said Laila Ahadi, program officer at its office in Kurghon-teppa, 90 miles southwest of the Central Asian country's capital of Dushanbe. Ahadi's office is in charge of feeding the southern half of the country, where the program says 482,000 people need food. People in the area have lost 60 percent of their crops to the drought. Many who still work on the collective farms set up during the Soviet era say they haven't been paid in six months. At a distribution center in Qabodian, hundreds of people stood in the bitter cold for most of the day for a bag of wheat and vegetable oil. "Tajikistan is a forgotten but desperate situation. We are trying to get to the people before they collapse and die," said Bouchan Hadj-Chikh, director of the World Food Program's efforts in the country. The drought is the latest in a series of hardships for Tajikistan since it won independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. A civil war wracked the country from 1992 to 1995. Since then, 50,000 Tajiks have returned home from neighboring Central Asian states and Afghanistan — only to encounter unemployment and hunger. "We are freer today, but our life is not easy," said Abdul Khaliq Tilov, who runs a dingy shop in Dushanbe selling biscuit boxes caked with dust. "Ten years ago life was easier." More than 80 percent of Tajikistan's 6 million people live below the poverty level, earning $8 a month on average. Unemployment hovers around 40 percent and is much higher in rural areas. In the countryside, school attendance has fallen from near 100 percent before independence to barely 60 percent today. Malnutrition is endemic among children 5 years old and under. In the Tajik capital of Dushanbe the WFP runs a program for hundreds of street children who spend their days doing odd jobs - selling plastic bags or pushing wheelbarrows loaded with produce. "I'm the one in my family who earns the money," said 13-year-old Dilshad Walir, whose small body was doubled beneath the weight of the vegetables and fruit he hauled in his wheelbarrow. Cuddling her 4-year-old daughter in her arms, Shodu Gul Murodova, a teacher who earns $3 a month, spent an entire day waiting for a Wood Food Program bag of grain. "I don't like to stand here waiting all day, but what choice do I have?" she said. "This is my baby. Yes, I want her to be able to go to school and be educated, but first I want her to have food." Ramsia Manonovna, a microbiologist, stands for hours in freezing temperatures selling pickled vegetables she makes at home and packages in plastic bags. For a day's work in Dushanbe's market, she earns about 50 cents. "I need to earn some money," she said. One of her hands was warmed by a green mitten, but the other was bare and bright pink from the cold. Her rubber boots were too big for her feet. Elsewhere, Burkhan Ganianovna wandered the bazaar in Dushanbe in a sweater held together by a safety pin. Every night, he can manage only bread and tea for dinner. When the hunger becomes too much to bear, Ganianovna sells his household items. "On that day we have potatoes," he said. "I don't know what is going to happen in my country. I think we are all going to die." Copyright 2001, Associated Press

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-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), February 16, 2001

Answers

And again... Tajikistan near starvation

Sunday, February 11, 2001

By Associated Press

An old woman steals gifts left in a graveyard to sell for food. A microbiologist sells pickled vegetables on the street. A schoolteacher waits all day for a bag of wheat to feed her daughter. Hunger pervades Tajikistan, where drought, unemployment and the unhealed wounds of war have left the country on the verge of starvation.

The United Nations World Food Program has been feeding many of the poorest, but the program's cupboards are now bare. If donor countries don't agree to send more money during an urgent appeal in Geneva on Friday, the program says its aid will end on Feb. 16.

"We have no food in our warehouse. Our balance is zero," said Laila Ahadi, program officer at its office in Kurghon-teppa, 90 miles southwest of the Central Asian country's capital of Dushanbe. Ahadi's office is in charge of feeding the southern half of the country, where the program says 482,000 people need food.

People in the area have lost 60 percent of their crops to the drought. Many who still work on the collective farms set up during the Soviet era say they haven't been paid in six months.

At a distribution center in Qabodian, hundreds of people stood in the bitter cold for most of the day for a bag of wheat and vegetable oil. "Tajikistan is a forgotten but desperate situation. We are trying to get to the people before they collapse and die," said Bouchan Hadj- Chikh, director of the World Food Program's efforts in the country.

The drought is the latest in a series of hardships for Tajikistan since it won independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. A civil war wracked the country from 1992 to 1995. Since then, 50,000 Tajiks have returned home from neighboring Central Asian states and Afghanistan — only to encounter unemployment and hunger.

"We are freer today, but our life is not easy," said Abdul Khaliq Tilov, who runs a dingy shop in Dushanbe selling biscuit boxes caked with dust. "Ten years ago life was easier."

More than 80 percent of Tajikistan's 6 million people live below the poverty level, earning $8 a month on average. Unemployment hovers around 40 percent and is much higher in rural areas. In the countryside, school attendance has fallen from near 100 percent before independence to barely 60 percent today.

Malnutrition is endemic among children 5 years old and under. In the Tajik capital of Dushanbe the WFP runs a program for hundreds of street children who spend their days doing odd jobs - selling plastic bags or pushing wheelbarrows loaded with produce.

"I'm the one in my family who earns the money," said 13-year-old Dilshad Walir, whose small body was doubled beneath the weight of the vegetables and fruit he hauled in his wheelbarrow.

Cuddling her 4-year-old daughter in her arms, Shodu Gul Murodova, a teacher who earns $3 a month, spent an entire day waiting for a Wood Food Program bag of grain.

"I don't like to stand here waiting all day, but what choice do I have?" she said. "This is my baby. Yes, I want her to be able to go to school and be educated, but first I want her to have food."

Ramsia Manonovna, a microbiologist, stands for hours in freezing temperatures selling pickled vegetables she makes at home and packages in plastic bags. For a day's work in Dushanbe's market, she earns about 50 cents.

"I need to earn some money," she said. One of her hands was warmed by a green mitten, but the other was bare and bright pink from the cold. Her rubber boots were too big for her feet.

Elsewhere, Burkhan Ganianovna wandered the bazaar in Dushanbe in a sweater held together by a safety pin. Every night, he can manage only bread and tea for dinner. When the hunger becomes too much to bear, Ganianovna sells his household items.

"On that day we have potatoes," he said. "I don't know what is going to happen in my country. I think we are all going to die."

Copyright 2001, Associated Press

All Rights Reserved

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), February 16, 2001.


Personally, I am more concerned with American’s that are starving. Tajikistan is so riddled with internal corruption, that little of the aid sent (cash, food, clothing, etc.) is ever seen by the general population. Anyone remember Somalia?

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 16, 2001.

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