Further information of the USAID disaster assistance program in Afghanistan is available at 
http://www.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/

Following is the text of the USAID press release:

UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PRESS RELEASE

U.S. PRE-POSITIONS HUMANITARIAN AID TO HELP INNOCENT AFGHANS PREPARE FOR HARSH WINTER

Winter is quickly approaching in Afghanistan. Heavy snows will soon begin falling, making it difficult for humanitarian relief convoys to reach many parts of the country.

Years of civil war, drought, rule by the repressive Taliban regime and the presence of the Al Qaeda network have left Afghanistan with a major humanitarian crisis. In particular, the most vulnerable Afghans -- the more than 10 million children -- are suffering. Almost 1/2 of Afghan children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Millions of innocent Afghans face the threat of starvation.

The US has for years been the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. And with this year's winter approaching in Afghanistan, the US is accelerating its relief activities to get as much food, blankets, and other important relief items to the innocent Afghan people.

As the Afghan winter rapidly approaches, the United States, through the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), is working hard to preposition large quantities of food in mountainous areas. At the beginning of the current crisis, WFP was transporting only 200 metric tons of food aid into Afghanistan per day. This figure is now up to 2,400 metric tons. WFP is moving food directly to areas of need in Afghanistan from Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. The US has recently taken other key actions to help the Afghan people. For example:

-- To date, the Department of Defense (DOD) has airdropped 1,275,840 Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) valued at $5,486,112 into Afghanistan.

-- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided WFP with $5 million for the purchase of approximately 160 trucks to augment the trucking capacity inside Afghanistan and help WFP deliver 32,000 metric tons of food aid to Afghanistan's mountainous areas over the next three to four weeks.

-- USAID provided $6 million to WFP to purchase 15,000 metric tons of wheat from Kazakhstan; the wheat will be transported to Turkmenistan, where it will be bagged for further transport and delivery to the emergency operation in Northern Afghanistan. In addition, USAID recently signed contracts with several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) for the local purchase of another 13,495 metric tons of wheat and other commodities valued at $5.2 million, that will go to the people of Afghanistan.

-- USAID currently delivers food, blankets and other important items to over one-third of the 157 districts in Afghanistan identified by WFP as in need of immediate emergency assistance. Additionally, USAID-funded programs provide relief to over two-thirds of the 55 most-severely affected districts within that group.

-- The U.S. is providing $2 million to WFP to airlift U.S. Government-donated wheat from WFP's warehouse in Quetta, Pakistan to Turkmenabad, Turkmenistan, which has a dangerously low supply of food stocks and needs to re-supply until deliveries from Iran arrive. Over the next several days, WFP aircraft will fly three to four flights a day between Pakistan and Turkmenistan for a total of 30 to 40 flights over a 10-day period. The wheat will then be loaded onto trucks destined for northern Afghanistan, the hunger belt of the country where WFP is seeking to help about three million people stay alive until the harvest next year.

-- On November 5, USAID began the airlift of 200 metric tons of BP-5 High Energy Biscuits, 20,000 wool blankets, 100 rolls of plastic sheeting, and 1 metric ton of sugar via C-17 cargo plane to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. USAID anticipates completion of the commodity airlift by November 9. The commodities, valued at $751,102, will be transferred to International Organization for Migration (IOM) for distribution in Afghanistan.

Source: United States Agency for International Development