In Afghanistan today, the lives of men, women, and children remain fraught with serious challenges. Despite the severity of these issues, many nonprofit and aid organizations are committed to supporting Afghans with emergency relief and humanitarian development projects. One such charity is Afghanaid.
Afghanaid is a UK-based, international nonprofit that was launched with the mission of providing Afghans with the tools and training necessary to help themselves, their families, and communities. In particular, the organization supports marginalized households deemed to be most at risk, including those with elderly family members, households headed by women, and the families of chronically ill and disabled people. Since the charity was established in 1983, Afghanaid has also worked in some of the nation’s remotest and most underserved communities throughout political turmoil and deepening poverty. The nonprofit’s focus is on community-led development: building meaningful, respectful relationships with the people it serves, and engaging village committees in all stages of development projects, from identifying needs to planning projects, putting them into action, and evaluating the results.
The year 2023 marked Afghanaid’s 40th year of providing large-scale, transformative development and humanitarian assistance to thousands of underserved communities across the country.
Challenges
For many Afghans, household debt is increasing as families take out loans just to make ends meet. Around 90% of Afghanistan’s population is struggling to put food on the table, frequently skipping meals and going whole days without food. According to aid agencies, an estimated 29.2 million Afghans currently require urgent humanitarian assistance.
Largely due to the climate crisis, food security rates have deteriorated significantly in Afghanistan, with long periods of drought drying up harvests and placing a huge strain on people’s livelihoods. These problems have further been compounded by a series of disasters, most notably the devastating earthquakes in Herat in October 2023 and the flash floods of spring 2024. These environmental and economic crises have culminated in acute funding shortages across the country, affecting infrastructure and pushing millions of families into poverty.
Afghanaid’s response
In 2022, Afghanaid introduced its “Agility in the Face of Change” five-year strategy to amplify its efforts in Afghanistan. The four pillars of this strategy—representing the nonprofit’s four main program areas—include basic services for all, economic opportunities, climate and disaster risk reduction, and emergency humanitarian assistance.
In 2023 alone, Afghanaid supported more than 1.5 million Afghan men, women, and children by implementing 25 projects across Afghanistan. These initiatives built roads, reduced the impact of flooding, and improved farmers’ production methods, among other outcomes. Although launched with funding from Afghanaid, these projects were community-led.
Partnering with local development councils to identify specific needs, Afghanaid designs and implements holistic solutions, adopting a holistic approach to tackling poverty rather than merely treating the symptoms.
Water
According to UNICEF, somewhere in the region of 8 in 10 Afghans currently lack access to safe drinking water. This gaping lack of infrastructure leaves millions of Afghan families at risk of contracting preventable illnesses. In Afghanistan, acute diarrhea is a leading cause of death in children aged five years and younger.
Afghanaid has strived to improve water, hygiene, and sanitation facilities across 114 Afghan communities by training local people to build their own water supply networks and toilet facilities. The organization provides local people with water filters and information on managing water supplies to avoid water-borne disease. In addition to driving down waterborne disease rates, Afghanaid’s water programs also eliminate the need for people to make long, perilous journeys to access safe drinking water—a benefit that can also improve school attendance rates for children.
Livelihood
Inflation is a global problem, but rising food and fuel prices have taken their toll on Afghan households that were already struggling. Extreme debt has left many families unable to rebuild their lives, making them even more vulnerable to future challenges.
Recognizing this, Afghanaid implemented a nationwide project designed to facilitate livelihood recovery following shocks to the Afghan economy. In addition to distributing emergency cash, Afghanaid also provides comprehensive, wide-ranging support for farmers, working directly alongside more than 24,000 households across seven provinces. Thanks to Afghanaid’s efforts, 43% of families the organization worked with were able to achieve an immediate reduction in their household debt. In addition, 88% of households benefited from improved future income-generating opportunities, bolstering their ability to withstand further economic shocks in the future.
Looking back and looking forward
In 2023, on Afghanaid’s 40th anniversary, Managing Director Charles Davy issued a statement highlighting the charity’s continued commitment to its vision of a peaceful and thriving Afghanistan. Nevertheless, he conceded that the situation in the country was extremely challenging for ordinary people grappling with the economic and humanitarian crisis. Mr. Davy warned that almost 29 million Afghans were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with nine out of ten households unable to sustain their daily needs.
In the future, the hope is that Afghanistan will no longer need such aid. In the meantime, Afghanaid and the many other charities at work in the country seek to support and empower Afghans, so that they can bring about a brighter, more prosperous future for their country.