Gulal, 12, is a child laborer who picks up water bottles and other cans from the streets in Kabul to make ends meet. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced three packages of aid worth of $150 million for Afghanistan, the USAID said.
An amount of $80 million will go to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), $30 million will go to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and another $40 million of aid will be allocated to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Today the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced an $80 million commitment to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to improve food security and nutrition for Afghans experiencing severe food insecurity, including women, women-headed households, and smallholder farmers and herders,” the USAID’s statement reads.
This comes as the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock said the recent floods have severely affected the farmers and gardeners in Afghanistan.
“As much as aid is provided, it is effective for the Afghan agriculture sector. The agriculture lands and canals have been affected, and the livestock have been lost,” said Musbahuddin Mustayeen, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.
USAID and UNICEF signed an agreement for $40 million aid that they say will provide hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans with desperately needed cash assistance to keep their children in school—children who would otherwise not attend or drop-out of school due to ongoing humanitarian, economic, and political crises. Gulal, 12, is a child laborer who picks up water bottles and other cans from the streets in Kabul to make ends meet.
“It has been a year since I left my studies. I studied until grade five, and then stopped,” Gulal said. “I have studied school until grade six. But there is no one to take care of me in the family and to work. I had the first position in the school,” said Hehkamatullah, a child laborer. Earlier, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, in an interview with an Uzbek TV channel, said that Washington provided nearly $1 billion in aid for Afghanistan since the collapse of the former government.—Tolo News
