Donations have been coming in to Weyburn elevators recently, directed to help the people of Afghanistan through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

The charitable organization has also been taking in grain and cash donations for other destinations, but since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the bombing raids began on that country, more donations have been coming in that directed to help out in Afghanistan, said Weyburn campaign organizer Darwin Lackey.

The Foodgrains Bank has been sending in grain to that country for the past three years, and this will continue as the organization recently reached a new three-year agreement with the federal aid agency, CIDA, worth about $16 million a year.

Also as part of the Afghan program is a tuberculosis control program operated by MedAir, a non-governmental organization that runs a health program there. Each month, patients are given a ration of 60 kilograms of wheat, 4.5 kg of beans and 4.5 kg of edible oil. This is to help patients in their course of treatment for TB and to improve their nutritional status.

Some of this food was on its way to Afghanistan but was held up in Pakistan when the bombing began by U.S. and British forces.

Other than the TB patients, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank also shipped 400 tonnes of Canadian wheat last year to rural families affected by drought in Afghanistan, helping out 700 families (or 4,200 people) through a food-for-work program. Over the last three years, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank has sent in 3,600 tonnes of food into Afghanistan with help from CIDA, the Mennonite Central Committee and other Canadian church groups.

All Weyburn-area grain elevators and terminals accept donations of grain or cash for the Foodgrains Bank, said Lackey, and donors can specify any other destination they would like, or no particular destination, just where the need is greatest. Donors can also indicate if they are from one of the 12 church groups in the Weyburn who are participating in the annual collection drive.