THE CITIZEN this week can bring you a first hand account of the appalling hardships currently being suffered by the people of Afghanistan.

Shaun Walsh from Bispham is vice-president of Relief for Food for the Hungry International (FHI) and has previously sent reports from New York City after the events of September 11, the Gujurat earthquake and trips to India.

This is his latest hard-hitting inside account...

I HAVE just got back from two days in a void of hope that is called Afghanistan.

To even drive to the border we had to get written permission from the United Nations, the Tajikistan Government, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs i.e. the Northern Alliance Embassy in Dushanbe and the KGB.

Once we got to the border we had to go through five checkpoints and border posts -- a Tajik border crossing, a Russian crossing, a second Tajik crossing and finally another Russian crossing before getting a ferry to cross a river that acts as a border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Once on the other side of the river you then pass an Afghanistan border checkpoint and then you have entered officially a most wretched country.

At each point you have to get out of the car, show your passports, and show your luggage. This whole process took three hours which was very quick as it normally can take up to eight hours to cross these checkpoints.

I thought Tajikistan was bleak but Afghanistan gave this word a new meaning. Guns, artillery, including rocket launchers, are everywhere. You immediately realise you have just entered in to a war zone. It's absolutely bleak and foreboding. I wasn't prepared for how bad it was. And these people are LIVING in it.

Our first stop was at a camp of people who have fled Taliban controlled areas called Navabad. There are around 7,000 people in this camp. I talked to the camp leaders about the situation. The shelters are very basic and this has to see them through a very harsh winter.

In this camp there were hardly any children under two years old because they had died from hunger and disease. I saw no food trucks during the two days I was there. I saw a few people chewing on mouldy bread. If food doesn't arrive they will either die where they are, or die getting to wherever they think the food is.

There is no grey area. As a parent I could understand their desperation and could see how people would rush the border, risking being shot, in order to feed their children. I would do the same thing.

I met one woman who came up to me with a malnourished child. She was crying her eyes out. Like many Afghans in the camps she expressed anger that there were literally hundreds of journalists there with cameras but no one came with anything to eat.

I watched an Afghan man stomping mud with his bare feet, trying to make bricks for a shelter. He had dug a pit into the ground measuring six by eight feet and was building up the side walls. He would be putting a family of eight into this shelter for the duration of the winter.

The people are without hope and Food for the Hungry International (FHI) and other partners with whom we are working are determined to bring that hope to them in the form of food, winter clothing and blankets, shelter and medical assistance.

Our aim is to prevent deaths and sustain 266,000 people through the winter and provide them with seeds and tools next year to begin to grow their own food. The need is great and further support is appreciated.

During our evening period we drove into a barrage of rocket fire being directed by the Northern Alliance in to Taliban-controlled areas around 50 feet away from our vehicle. We also heard missiles flying overhead towards the front and decided to stay where we were for safety reasons and slept in the car.

The next day, as we boarded the ferry to get back to Tajikistan territory, we heard constant shooting and mortar fire in the hills and mountains around us.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for those people in the middle of this war who are surrounded by this battle with no way out, no food, no shelter, little clothes and a harsh winter heading their way with every passing day.

Food for the Hungry International is going to show these people that somebody cares about their plight.

If you would like to help cheques can be made payable to: Food for the Hungry UK and sent to: Food for the Hungry UK, 44 Copperfield Road, Bassett, Southampton, SO16 3NX. Or call (0238) 0902327 or email uk@fhi.net