UN rehabilitation activities in full swing across Afghanistan

More than 3,000 unskilled workers – including women – have been recruited by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and municipal authorities to clean up the Afghan capital, Kabul, and other urban centres.

In Kabul, the focus will be on rehabilitating municipal buildings, cleaning parks and preparing schools for the commencement of classes next Saturday. The workers in Kabul, Mazar-I-Sharif, Kandahar, and Herat have been equipped with brooms, picks, shovels and wheelbarrows by the UN Centre – known as Habitat – all of which were purchased in-country.

Meanwhile, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has commenced distribution of vitamin C tablets in Afghanistan's central Ghor province to help address a major outbreak of scurvy reported last week.

More than 250,000 doses have been purchased and distributed in the districts of Taiwara and Pasaband of Ghor, and UNICEF has taken steps to purchase an additional 7.75 million tablets – a month's supply for the affected population.

Scurvy, a nutritional disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, leaves sufferers particularly vulnerable to secondary infections.