World Vision works to help children in Afghanistan

Afghanistan (MNN)–Post-war Afghanistan remains in dismal ruins.

World Vision works to distribute food aid to 37,000 Afghan children. WVI teams are distributing 5,000 tons of food to 37,000 Afghan school children in the remote western provinces fo Ghor and Badghas after shipments of aid arrived from the U.S. earlier this month.

The global U.S. Department of Agriculture Food for Education Program funded the food aid. The program was established in May 2001 and encourages parents to send their sons and daughters to school. This is unusual in a country like Afghanistan where girls often are denied educational opportunities.

Last year, only 23,000 of the region’s 60,000 school-age children were enrolled in school. World Vision is also training 675 teachers and building five new schools in western Afghanistan with funding from the program.