The process of distributing flour and cooking oil to the needy families of Balkh has been halted by the order of the central government in Balkh province, said Afzal Hadid, the head of Balkh's provincial council.
 
The flour and cooking oil delivery program has been switched to bread delivery by the bakeries.
 
He said that Afs50 million of the financial package was allocated to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Balkh.
 
But from the total Afs50 million initially allocated for coronavirus pandemic, said Hadid, Afs31 million will be allocated to help 15,000 needy families.
 
According to Hadid, only 3,000 families were provided with flour and oil from the money spent so far.
 
“I apologize! Unfortunately, the government has decided to halt the process for the remaining 12,000 families. The government has said that the money that was allocated to purchase flour and cooking oil must be transferred to a bread distribution initiative,” added Hadid.

According to local officials in Balkh, tens of thousands of families in the province are coping with poverty and economic hardship in the province.

“We will soon receive the wheat that was promised to us by the central government and it will be distributed to the needy families,” said Shujauddin Shuja, the deputy governor of Balkh.

Currently, over 35,000 families are benefiting from the bread distribution initiative in Balkh.

“Based on the initiative guideline, the weight of a piece of bread is supposed to be 200 grams. We are closely overseeing the process and also our citizens have the right to monitor the process. We recently closed down fourteen bakeries after we found that the weight of the bread was less than the allotted weight,” said Abdul Haq Khurrami, the mayor of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Among the needy families in Balkh, there are also those families who were recently displaced from their native areas in other regions of the province due to a surge in violence.

Most of these families are now deprived of the basic needs of life such as sufficient food.

Mohammad Ibrahim was recently displaced from Faryab province and now spends a hard life in the suburbs of Mazar-e-Sharif city in Balkh.
“We are in very miserable conditions here,” he said.

Earlier this month Save the Children in a report said that over 7 million Afghan children facing the threat of hunger and insufficient nutrition.