Kabul tent-dwellers demand assistance amid biting cold

KABUL (Pajhwok): Internally displaced families are struggling to survive in this harsh winter in their makeshift shelters just outside Kabul and demand humanitarian assistance especially firewood and fuel.

A severe cold snap has gripped many provinces, with the mercury plummeting to minus 30 celsius in some areas.

The cold wave has made life miserable and harder for poverty-stricken families living in tents as they have nothing to warn their dwellings.

ChaharRahiQambar is one of such places in the capital city of Kabul where hundreds of poor IDP families live in tents or mud homes.

Living in tents without a heating system is quite hard, especially for elders and children.

Palwasha, 35, a mother of seven children who was displaced from Laghman province because of insecurity seven years ago, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “We have a hard life here, the cold weather is biting and my children are sick”.

This family is living in a room with a plastic mat, the children are continuously coughing from under their nasty blankets and the temperature of their room was no different from the weather outside.

Palwasha was hugging her two-month-old toddler who was infected with pneumonia and was crying constantly.

While shedding tears, Palwasha said poverty was more oppressing her. She said her husband was a clay mason, he earns 300 afs the day he finds work and they can buy some food but they cannot find any money to pay for medics or buy fuel.

Palwasha and her children collect plastics and other papers to burn them and warm their room.

The woman asked the government and welfare organizations to help her and other poor people like her.

Nazia is another woman who is living in the same location along with her nine children.

Her husband is a laborer and the family lives in a clay and mud house.

Nazia said: “We are 11 family members, we have a tough life here, no food, no fuel, the life this year is very hard and I am afraid that my children will die”.

Nazia also asked the government and welfare organizations to provide them food and firewood.

Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, told Pajhwok Afghan News the ChaharRahiQambar IDPs had received a lot of assistance.

He said 180,000 families of Kabul city, including the IDPs of ChaharRahiQambar, received food assistance from the World Food Program (WFP) and the process was still ongoing.

aw/ma