Volunteer medical workers deliver food, advice to Kabul’s poor

KABUL (TOLO News): A number of medical workers in western Kabul on Thursday distributed flour, oil and rice to 50 poor families.

The packages also included soap, gloves and antiseptic detergents.

Disinfecting roads in the west of Kabul, and offering telephone counseling, are also among the services of these medical workers.

“Poor families are identified by area representatives who provide them with donated funds, which are distributed to them on a weekly basis,” said Mujtaba Khawari, one of the volunteer workers.

“People who are infected with–or suspected of having–COVID-19 cannot go to hospitals for testing, so we advise them through our telephones,” said Roqya Gawohari, another volunteer.

Many citizens of Kabul who earned their pay through day labor have been unemployed with the city lockdown in effect. At the same time, food prices in Kabul’s markets have risen sharply.

Some families say they are having problems finding bread.

Abbas, a disabled man, is the only breadwinner for his four-member family, and he said: “I’m disabled myself; I can’t work. I used to sell phone cards, but now that Kabul is in quarantine, we are unemployed.”

In Kabul, restrictions have been in place for a month to prevent further outbreaks of the coronavirus. So far, 1,226 positive coronavirus cases have been reported in the country, of which 447 are in Kabul.