Basic Needs Ministry - Serving Afghanistan Basic Needs has provided a small amount of relief for the children by providing our communities' excess children's shoes, socks, pens, and stuffed animals. When the initial request came to us, the military reported local weather was below zero and the children were barefoot. Local pictures - life with bombs. Food for the Hungry has partnered with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) to build and rehabilitate homes in the Mazar region and Canadian Food Grains Bank (CFGB) to build up the food security capacity of over 8,000 families in Takhar Province. The emphasis is now on rehabilitation, with food being given in return for work, and the people themselves are helping to build their homes. Since 2001, they have tried to provide shoes and cold weather clothing for the children in Takhur. Our servicemen have been helping the children of Afghanistan get shoes and socks after seeing them run barefooted over the rocks at 5 degrees below zero. In 2004 they organized and asked donors to ship shoes to Operation Shoe Fly, Company B, 214th Aviation Regiment, Bagram, Afghanistan, APO AE 09354-9998. Once there, the shoes would be flown where our troops ferry supplies and a wide expanse of the country could receive shoes. By being shipped to an APO, the postage is the same as shipping in the United States. "International aid organizations say 28,000 children in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, survive by scavenging through bombed-out buildings, salvaging scraps of metal, unexploded warheads and wood. “Look around. We have nothing,” Uddin said. “But the worst thing is our bath house. We have no hot water and it is just a cement box. It is freezing.” Some of the youngest children haven't had a bath in six weeks. Sores have developed on their heads and faces. Uddin says it's a trade off. With temperatures well below freezing, he says a bath in frigid water would be certain to make the smallest children sick. The older boys are hardier; they wash every two weeks." - AP Wire
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