Bayat Foundation launched its winter aid program in Kabul, delivering food essentials to dozens of needy families in the western part of the city.

Foundation officials said they aim to provide aid to desperate families suffering from enormous hardships and hunger amid record low temperatures.

“This is part of Bayat Foundation’s winter aid [program] which is launched every year; fortunately this year we launched our aid [program] and are providing wheat flour, rice and cooking oil to needy people in west Kabul. The aid will soon reach other parts of Kabul and other provinces as well,” said Haji Mohammad Ismail, deputy head of Bayat Foundation.

Recipients thanked Bayat Foundation for the aid, and said they hope it will continue in the future. They also said they had been desperate for the supplies as they had no food in their homes.

“I would like to thank the Bayat Foundation for the aid. It will solve people’s problems. The people in west Kabul are very poor,” a recipient said.

“Bayat Foundation supports orphans and poor people. We hope it will continue to help them,” another recipient said.

The coordinator for helping distribute aid in west Kabul, Mohammad Hadi Hani said: “The aid is significant for the people in PD 13. I would like to thank the Bayat Foundation. I hope they will continue to help poor people here.”

Bayat Foundation delivers aid to needy people every winter. Officials say people in other provinces will also receive aid during this winter.

The aid comes at a critical time for Afghans who are not only dealing with widespread poverty but also with an exceptionally cold winter.

According to the latest figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 28 million people in Afghanistan are affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Al Jazeera meanwhile reported that climate scientists have attributed the recent weather anomalies to polar vortex disruptions, as a result of which, strong arctic winds flow much farther from the North Pole and bring masses of cold air to our region.

According to Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan climate expert and associate researcher at the University of Stuttgart, prediction models estimated that the cold wave would last until the end of January or the first week of February, before the weather returns to average conditions.

“Afghanistan, like other countries, is witnessing a rise in the number of extreme events. This is much to do with climate change as more sun energy is observed by the Earth’s atmosphere that in turn increases the dynamic of atmospheric activities such as heatwaves, rapid rains, etc,” he said, adding that a lack of preparedness for such events could have disastrous consequences for Afghans, Al Jazeera reported.