LETTER: Help for Kabul

Sir: Your picture story on Afghanistan (23 March) highlights a huge humanitarian catastrophe, caused by over 15 years of civil war.

The main problems facing displaced people are lack of fuel and food. The International Red Cross has been distributing food to 9,000 of Kabul's most vulnerable families with the Afghan Red Crescent. A food-for-work project is also operating in a 35,000-hectare area of what used to be a minefield. Displaced people have made tools and ploughed and sown the land. The first harvest will be in May . The Red Cross is running two main surgical hospitals in Kabul and fully supports four more with medical supplies.

John English

British Red Cross

London SW1