Lucas van den Broeck: Food aid to Afghanistan

Convoy to Northern Afghanistan

Lucas Van den Broeck is the executive director of the United States section of Action Against Hunger. Before beginning his work with Action Against Hunger, he was with Medecins Sans Frontieres for many years, working in the violent conflicts in Sudan, Liberia, Zaire, Iran, Iraq, and other countries. He joined the CNN.com chat room from New York.

CNN: Welcome to CNN.com, Lucas Van den Broeck. Thank you for being with us today.

LUCAS VAN DEN BROECK: Hi, I hope everyone has challenging questions, and I hope I will give interesting replies. Nice to meet you guys.

CNN: Mr. Van den Broeck, can you explain to us what type of food supplies are being provided to Afghanistan, and who exactly are the intended recipients?

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VAN DEN BROECK: It depends on what category you are talking about. There are various types of recipients. First, you have the very malnourished, who get a specialized treatment. Then there are also general food rations to the population, and those are mostly consisting of bulk foods like wheat. The special group at risk of losing their lives [is] always children below 5 years of age, and pregnant and lactating mothers. But the focus is usually on children below five. We measure them and divide them into the categories of severely and moderately malnourished. The severely nourished are 70% weight for height, which means that they have lost 30% of their weight, according to their height. Those are children who will absolutely die, if they're not treated accordingly to special methods.

CHAT PARTICIPANT:How much of the food dropped actually gets to those who needs it? And how is it known where it really goes?

VAN DEN BROECK: A severely malnourished child lives on its own tissue to feed the vital organs, the heart, lungs, brain. So its muscles and fat atrophy. The consequence is that the digestive system can no longer process complex food. When you feed children like that with foods [that are] being dropped, the system crashes. They have severe diarrhea, and the system stops.

For the moderately malnourished child, we usually give 2000 calories per day, plus a quarter to half of that more in addition. So that means 2500-3500 calories per day. The ration is exactly what the US drops, and the content is correct, 10% proteins, 30% fats, and the rest carbohydrates. It's correct.

For the severe, these food drops do nothing, and can harm them. For the moderate, there are other problems. For example, will the same mother and children get that ration every day, because that's what they need. Also, will the family take it? The family might take it and the child won't get it.

In our program, we demonstrate how to use it, and this is not being done [with food drops]. They may be saving some, or selling it. The food drops are not controlled, but programs that address hunger situations are extremely closely monitored. Severely malnourished have to be monitored 24 hours a day, giving them the minimum, so they can slowly build up the ability to eat again. Their system can go into shock at any time.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: What is the best way to get aid to civilians during a war, without having to stop the war?

VAN DEN BROECK: You have many techniques that have been tried out in the past. Each situation, of course, requires an adapted approach. For instance, in Liberia, I have organized big food shipments per train across the front line, with monitors of all warring factions on the train to reassure all the factions. This was respected, and a lot of food was shipped that way. Another very well known example is the Gulf War, where the Allies demilitarized an entire zone so that humanitarian agencies could bring in supplies. So you can have a humanitarian corridor, safe havens, if possible, pauses of war activity to permit humanitarian work, such as in south Sudan.

CHAT PARTICIPANT:How many civilians within Afghanistan are starving today?

VAN DEN BROECK: There are about 23 million Afghans. Just before the evacuation and the war activity, Action Against Hunger did a survey and found that about 1/3 of the population, especially in the north and the northeast, is at risk. We have also done nutritional surveys to measure nutritional status. Very frankly, we did not find crisis levels. We found levels [of malnutrition] that are high, but not yet in the emergency zone. The worrisome thing is that all the coping mechanisms have been depleted. Cattle has been sold, harvest that have yet to be harvested have been sold in advance or used as collateral for loans. Jewelry and valuables have been sold. People have no more capacity to feed themselves when they run out of supplies.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Mr. Van den Broeck I have heard that the water supply is horrible. Are we dropping bottled water too?

VAN DEN BROECK: To my knowledge, there is no water being dropped. Water sources are indeed generally of bad quality. Action Against Hunger does a large water and sanitation program. Again, the same problem arises if you talk about water drops, dropping water bottles, the quantities will absolutely not be enough. Make a calculation, the minimum standard for refugees is 15 liters per person per day, about 4 gallons, I believe. If you calculate, the quantity is enormous, and there is no control of who gets it. The absence of clean drinking water does have an effect on malnutrition. It creates diarrhea, and further undermines nutrition.

CHAT PARTICIPANT:Are current U.S. food drops more effective from a public relations standpoint than a nutritional one?

VAN DEN BROECK: It is not helping the combat against malnutrition. What it does do is not for me to judge.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: How much more is needed, and how can the world help get bulk supplies to Afghanistan?

VAN DEN BROECK: As I said, there are various techniques. I don't know how to reconcile in this case war activities and humanitarian operations, but there has to be some kind of reconciliation, be it by corridors, safe havens, or pauses in the war activities. There are currently supplies going in by roads. As we speak, 4,300 tons are underway from Pakistan to an area west of Kabul. But it's currently snowing, and already logistics are becoming difficult. In addition, neighboring countries should open their border, as by international conventions, so that the people are not trapped inside the country. I believe Pakistan is already going in that direction.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Can we really expect the Afghans to believe that the food is safe?

VAN DEN BROECK: Frankly, I really don't know. I think many of the ordinary Afghans have absolutely no means of communication. Television is forbidden, and I think especially initially they might not have even known what was going on. I know that people are suspicious, of course, of what is being dropped, and that things are either being sold, fed to animals, and so on. It is clear that some of it is consumed.

CNN: Do you have any closing comments for us today?

VAN DEN BROECK: I just want to finalize by saying that if we want a stable world, then we have to have stability everywhere, and the only way to create stability is a combination of creating security, political stability, but also the elementary conditions for well-being and survival. So relief and development operations are also essential to stability. Finally, if I may, I'd like to invite people to check out our web site, http://www.aah-usa.org. Thank you very much for the questions.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today, Lucas Van den Broeck.

Lucas van den Broeck joined the CNN.com chat room by telephone and CNN provided a typist. This is an edited transcript of the chat which took place on Thursday, November 1, 2001.