KABUL – About 1,000 displaced and needy Afghan families received relief assistance in the capital Kabul on Tuesday as the Taliban-led caretaker government and aid agencies redoubled efforts to help destitute families in winter, authorities said on Tuesday.

“About 1,000 families received assistance packages which included food and non-food items as well as kitchenware and tarpaulin today in eastern Kabul,” Acting Minister of Disaster Management Mullah Mohammad Abbas Akhund told reporters.

The distributed assistance supplies were recently donated by Turkmenistan, Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan and Russia, according to the minister.

The needy families also received special food packages for children provided by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), he added. Economic woes hit the impoverished country following freezing of over 9 billion U.S. dollars of Afghan central bank’s assets by the United States as well as a halt of funds by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Aid agencies are racing against time to deliver life-saving aid and supplies to crisis-hit Afghans during winter in the mountainous country.