Work for food: Hundreds of Takhar people given jobs

TALOQAN (Pajhwok): Local officials in northeastern Takhar province say more than 800 people have been hired to work in exchange for food.

Takhar governor's spokesman Khan Zarin Minhaj told Pajhwok Afghan News that the program was launched in coordination with the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in Taloqan, the provincial capital, and some districts of the province.

He said that the central government had sent 231 tons of wheat as a quota for Takhar province and 10 kilograms were given to each worker a day.

These workers work on roads to connect villages with district centers, clean roadside water drainages and desilt irrigation canals, he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Hamid, a resident of Taloqan city and a worker of the program, was happy for being hired and asked the government to recruit jobless and poor people in the program.

As unemployment and economic poverty peeked, hundreds of people started traveling to neighboring countries for work, he said.

“If people are provided with more jobs in the country, a large number of Afghans will return home and people would stop migrating to foreign countries,” he added.

Assadullah Temour, a civil society activist in Takhar, said that the work for food program was a positive step of the government and charity organizations.

He said that such programs could be a source of hope for the unemployed and needy to be rescued from choosing a hard labor in neighboring countries and economic poverty.

The government has launched similar programs in many other provinces of the country.

mds/ma