The following update has been provided by the Asian Life Rural Development Foundation (ARLDF) regarding Cyd Mizell:
You may be aware that Asian Rural Life Development Foundation worker, Cyd Mizell, and her driver, Muhammad Hadi, were taken at gunpoint January 26th in Afghanistan. We continue to be hopeful that the two will be released unharmed soon. We have received innumerable e-mails and phone calls offering emotional encouragement and prayers. We are grateful for these. For continuing updates, check our web site www.arldf.net. Asian Rural Life Development Foundation is a humanitarian aid organization that works throughout Asia helping to provide a better quality of life for the poor, mainly through community development projects. In the area of Afghanistan where Mizell works, ARLDF personnel serve in education and projects that help people learn skills to better their lives and the lives of their families. Aid efforts in the region also include food-for-work projects, irrigation, rehabilitation, health care and restoration projects. Although our attention and focus is on this difficult situation, our ARLDF workers and their national colleagues throughout Asia are continuing their work. When this situation is resolved, we expect Mizell and Hadi will want to continue their work with ARLDF.