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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Suraya Sadeed

Aired October 20, 2001 - 08:51   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: In Afghanistan, it is estimated that there are seven and a half million women and children who are at great risk of hunger and starvation. With winter approaching, the situation is likely to get worse.

Suraya Sadeed is with the executive, or she is the executive director of the non-profit foundation Help The Afghan Children. She joins us now to talk more about this situation. Good morning to you.

SURAYA SADEED, HELP THE AFGHAN CHILDREN: Good morning. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Let me ask you how critical do you see the need at this particular moment?

SADEED: I tell you, the daily life at this point is a struggle for survival for a child in Afghanistan and even last year when the situation was not as worse as now, over 500 children were frozen to death within a week. But, of course, with the harsh winter just approaching, with the hunger and almost a country that's on the verge of the famine, it's, this, it's really been, the number of deaths is going to be much higher if we don't help them now.

SAVIDGE: How do you distribute the aid and what sort of difficulties have you had in light of the military operation ongoing?

SADEED: Well, distribution of food has never been easy in Afghanistan, but particularly now that all the roads are almost closed. But, of course, on the other hand, that this is the time that we're going to have to go despite of all the difficulties we're going to be facing. Even if we have to go by road or by donkey, however we can get the aid to children, we are determined to do so.

We'll be going by Tajikistan and buying food and blankets from there and transport it to Afghanistan.

SAVIDGE: And how does it work? Do you try to get the food and the clothing to the individuals that need it or do you try to encourage those people to come to some sort of camp or distribution area?

SADEED: We actually want to go to them at this point because they are scattered and some of them -- and most of them are women with children that they really can't go that far, you know? They are hungry. They are sick and they are cold. So it is also better for us to go and distribute ourselves and go to individuals and just see how they are and if they are in need of medical care, so we will have our doctors with us to see if we can help some people over there.

SAVIDGE: Do you work in coordination with other humanitarian groups and also with the relief effort that's being dropped by the air from the United States?

SADEED: We are hoping to, that the American Red Cross would join us in this effort. We have been in contact with the American Red Cross but we'll see what's going to happen.

As far as the air drop, I have, my concern would be is that Afghanistan is practically a killing field because there are over 10 million land miens scattered throughout the landscape and dropping food is probably going to harm them more than good because it's going to cause all these land mines to explode.

On the other hand, the last time that the food that objects that looked like food and toys was dropping by the Soviets, what turned out to be land mines and kids are very scared to go actually near them or pick them up. So that's another concern that we have.

SAVIDGE: And we're almost out of time, but let me ask you, when it comes to winter weather, what do you supply other than food to try to protect the people from the severe temperatures?

SADEED: We are trying, with the very minimum monetary fund that we have we are trying to buy them blankets and, if possible, tents to just protect them from the harsh winter.

SAVIDGE: All right, Suraya Sadeed is the executive director of the non-profit foundation Help The Afghan Children.

Thank you for being with us this morning and we wish you good luck in all your efforts.

SADEED: Thank you.

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