China-donated aid distributed among 6,000 families in Afghanistan

HERAT, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan authorities have distributed China-donated humanitarian aid to 6,000 needy families in the western Herat province, provincial director for Natural Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs Mohammad Hashim Khalid said Tuesday.

"In the provincial capital Herat city we started distribution of China-donated aid to 6,000 destitute families on Monday, and the aid package includes two bags of rice each 50 kg, totaling 100 kg rice," Khalid told reporters here.

Khalid added that, in addition to China-donated aid, the needy families also received wheat, biscuits, noodle, and bottles of fruit jam provided by Iran and Turkmenistan.

"I received two sacks of rice and I am hopeful to see more humanitarian aid from the neighboring country in the future. I am thankful to China," an aid beneficiary and bread earner of an eight-member family, Rizegol told Xinhua

"People are suffering due to poverty and unemployment in the cold weather and receiving China's assistance at this stage would solve our problems to some extent," Sayed Omar Timuri, a resident of Herat city, said.

China-donated aid was also distributed to 400 families in Herat's neighboring Nimroz province on Sunday.

China has supported Afghanistan over the past year with COVID-19 vaccines, winter clothes, tents and foodstuff, which had been distributed among poor and flood-affected families in the country.