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How
did the US Forest Service help the humanitarian relief
efforts? By helping to coordinate logistics, the Agency
ensured that certain aspects of the operation, such
as delivering relief supplies and equipment, ran smoothly.
Funded by the US Agency for International Development's
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, the US Forest Service's International Programs, through the Disaster
Assistance Support Program, deployed logistics officers
to Central Asia on separate missions.
Here
are summaries of the Agency's involvement in the Afghan
Relief Effort:
- At
the end of November 2001, International Programs sent
two logistic officers to Central Asia. The US Agency
for International Development provided funds for the
individuals to procure supplies, including food, blankets
and medical equipment in Turkmenistan. Working in
these border areas, the Forest Service logistics officers
made sure that international organizations transported
the supplies into Afghanistan both safely and efficiently.
This represented part of the ongoing collaborative
work between the US Agency for International Development
and International Programs to evaluate future needs
for a Disaster Assistance Response Team.
- In
addition, the Forest Service employees assisted a
similar effort implemented and funded by UNICEF. This
organization's strategy was to position humanitarian
relief aid along the borders of Afghanistan to deliver
as many relief supplies as possible. With funding
from domestic donations, UNICEF committed $36 million
to this end. The Forest Service employees made sure
that bandages, medicine, vaccines, food, blankets,
sweaters and water were transferred from warehouses
to refugee sites.
- In
September 2002, International Programs deployed a
member of the Timber Staff of the US Forest Service
to Uzbekistan to coordinate the logistics of the humanitarian
response to the Afghan refugees, who have suffered
from years of famine, drought and civil strife. His
primary role was: to assess the infrastructure in
Uzbekistan and its capability to sustain a relief
operation in the region. Additionally, International
Programs sent a key member of the Bureau of Land Management's
Fire and Aviation Management Unit to serve as a Military
Liaison Officer to the Joint US/British Civil Military
Operations Center in Pakistan.
In
the following months, as the winter cast its shadow
across Central Asia, the United States sent more personnel
from both agencies to be part of the Agency for International
Development's Disaster Assistance Response Team. Trained
by International Programs' Disaster Assistance Support
Program, the Team helped direct the delivery of much
needed, US Government-funded humanitarian relief supplies
to help mitigate a potential disaster.
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