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CNN Live Saturday

A Look at a U.N. Aid Worker Now in Afghanistan

Aired September 29, 2001 - 14:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We have been telling you about a humanitarian aid convoy that is trying to trudge its way toward northern Afghanistan. CNN's senior Asian correspondent, Mike Chinoy, tells us the story of one woman who has made helping the Afghan people her personal mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Afghanistan is a long way from Scotland, but for the past eight years, that's where Hermione Youngs has made her home, helping the victims of that countries continuing turmoil.

This is her latest project, the first aid shipment into Afghanistan since September 11, a convoy under the banner of UNICEF, bringing emergency supplies to the beleaguered residents of northern Afghanistan, who were already in dire trouble even before the latest crisis.

HERMIONE YOUNGS, AID WORKER: Well, three weeks ago, when I was helping one of the remotest villages, they were already plucking grasses from the hillside and boiling that as food because they have no food. And this is just an everyday, normal village.

So with all what's been happening recently, it is going to be catastrophic.

CHINOY (on camera): In these trucks, 200 metric tons of food, special nutritional formula for youngsters, medical kids, blankets and school books. The route of this convoy will take it up into the rugged mountains on the Pakistani side of the border, to a pass almost 4000 meters high. There, all the goods on these trucks will be loaded onto hundreds, perhaps thousands of donkeys and horses for the journey to the other side.

(voice-over): The Northern Alliance, which controls this part of Afghanistan, has granted safe passage. Aid agencies are still working to get Taliban permission for similar shipments to the rest of the country.

Hermione Youngs volunteered to help in Afghanistan, after the death of her husband nearly a decade ago. Now she can't imagine doing anything else. YOUNGS: Once I got into Afghanistan, I fell in love with Afghanistan and the Afghans. And I think going to back to a 9:00 until 5:00 job in the U.K. would be absolutely awful. I spend my days riding horses, visiting schools, implementing an educational program, which I love very much. And it's a lovely way to work.

CHINOY: And with the convoy on its way for the week-long trip, a critically important one, too.

YOUNGS: People are dying in Afghanistan. They have to change, otherwise there's going to be no Afghans.

CHINOY: Mike Chinoy, CNN, Pashawar, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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