ARCS helps above half a million needy people last year

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) assisted 511,000 needy people last year, provided health services to 3.8 million people, and referred more than 2,000 children with congenital heart disease to hospitals for treatment, officials said on Wednesday.

Hafiz Azizur Rahman, ACRS deputy head, said this during a program to interpret one year achievements of government departments in Kabul.

He said ARCS provided 1,334 tons of food, a total of 91,400 tents, blankets, clothes, tarpaulins, kitchen sets, soap, health kits, water bottles, and nearly 370 million afghanis to more than 511,000 people affected by natural and unnatural disasters last year.

They built houses for 288 earthquake victims in Herat’s Gulran district last year at a cost of 102 million afghanis and sent applications to Iran, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia and other countries to find 80 missing compatriots, he said.

He also said the Red Crescent Society provided assistance to more than 335,000 returned Afghan refugees this year.

Rahman added they provided food and non-food items and 2.5 million afghanis to 335,000 returned Afghan refugees in the Omari camp in Torkham, Melak camp in Nimroz, Anjar camp in Kandahar and Islam Qala camp in Herat.

Maulvi Ruhollah Abdul Salam, Deputy Secretary General for Operations, said they provided health services to over 3.8 million people through health centers across the country, referred 2,002 children with heart disease to hospitals for treatment, and administered over two million doses of polio vaccine.

According to him, the society treated 2,383 mentally ill patients in mental health treatment centers, sent 89 children with burns and bone diseases to Germany for treatment. He said 20 of the children had recovered and the rest were undergoing treatment in Germany.

He said that the society also treated 71 such children through various hospitals inside the country.

According to him, the Afghan Red Crescent Society has over 41,400 active volunteers, who collected over one million afghanis last year.

ma