IOM this week delivered a consignment of 1,000 blankets to displaced families in Afghanistan's southern provinceof Kandahar.
The delivery, coordinated through the Afghan Disaster Management Committee in Kandahar, was part of a rapid response mechanism set up by IOM and in response to a request from the Afghan Minister of Refugees & Repatriation.
An estimated 80,000 people have been displaced in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmandand Uruzgan since an upsurge of fighting between NATO-led troops and insurgents in July.
Most are now living with relatives or camping in parks, schools and on the streets of towns and villages in the region. UN agencies including WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF are providing emergency help, including food and emergency shelter, but risk being overwhelmed by the growing number of people in need.
"My family, like many others, lost everything," says Toor Gul, 35, a farmer from Kandahar's Zheridasht district. He fled to Kandaharcity where he is staying with relatives because of ongoing military operations in and around Zherdiasht.
"The new displacement, on top of an existing caseload of over 100,000 IDPs in the south, and no apparent improvement in the security situation means that we now have to act fast to avert a humanitarian crisis, " says Fernando Arocena, IOM's Chief of Mission in Afghanistan.
"But in order to intervene effectively, to help these people and others who may be displaced by future military operations or natural disasters, we urgently need new international donor support for our rapid response mechanism," he notes.
IOM's rapid response mechanism is designed to meet the immediate non-food needs of displaced people. It includes the provision of emergency shelter materials, blankets, clothing, cooking utensils, hygiene products like soap, basic agricultural tools and transport.
IOM has played a leading role in supporting internally placed Afghans and helping them to return to their homes since the fall of the Taliban in November 2001.
For further information, please contact Fernando Arocena at IOM Kabul. Email: farocena@iomkabul.net