One woman returned from Afghanistan two years ago where she had fled to escape the raging civil war in the early 1990s. Khatlon province, which contains most of Tajikistan's arable lands, was the most adversely affected, and now it is in dire need of aid to help accommodate thousands of returnees and, possibly in the future, feed the rest of the country. Unlike Abdelrahmanova and other extremely poor beneficiaries of the Vulnerable Group Feeding programmes in Kumsanger district, the women and men in the Bokhtar project were more confident and optimistic. WFP-Tajikistan intends to shift the focus of its development activities in Tajikistan during the next two years from supplying food relief to creating sustainable assets for the hungry poor in this country. In 1999, WFP fed about 270,000 hungry poor Tajiks participating in the Vulnerable Group Feeding programme and other similar schemes while more than 100,000 others benefited from WFP-assisted development schemes.
Food aid does more than keep people alive today.
It can help the beneficiaries to build a better future for themselves and their families. Hunger is the first threshold to cross in eradicating poverty. Abdelrahmanova hopes that if she is unable to cross this barrier, her only daughter and her two granddaughters might be able to. Not having received her meagre pension for over a year and threatened by the possible collapse of her ramshackle two-room house, this amazing woman does not seem to want to be sustained by aid, but to earn her own living. Laila Ahadi, head of WFP sub-office in Kurgan Tyube, Khatlon's provincial capital, would like to see the land leasing projects expanded even further.