Food relief for poor Afghans amid COVID-19
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750,000 Afghan households facing food insecurity and hunger have received food and basic necessities packages. Over 5 million households are expected to benefit.
Two World Bank projects support this relief effort through the Afghan government's Dastarkhwan-e-Meli program, which aims to alleviate hunger and unemployment for the most vulnerable.
Local Community Development Councils buy the relief packages from local providers, thus helping create jobs and stimulate local economies.
Eighty-year-old Bibi Sakina, a resident of Herat City in western Afghanistan, has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Her 75-year-old husband, Hassan Haidari, has diabetes. He contracted COVID-19 when the virus peaked and was hospitalized for 18 days. Sakina, who had survived a stroke earlier, could not imagine a worse situation, but soon after her husband left the hospital, they ran out of food.