Disaster Response Afghanistan Project #19507

Winterization Aid for Afghan communities

by Action for Development (AfD)

Project Report | Feb 26, 2024
Winterization Aid Project Update 2024: Supporting Vulnerable Families in Kabul and Parwan Provinces

By Cate Borrelli | Communications Officer

Afghanistan stands at a critical juncture, grappling with an escalating humanitarian crisis that has pushed the entire population into poverty. The country remains within the top 3 of the International Rescue Committee’s Emergency Watchlist for 2023, a position underscored by severe economic collapse. Consequently, there remains an urgent need for support among 28.8 million Afghans, nearly 60% from the previous year. The resulting challenges of food insecurity, unemployment, and access to essential services make humanitarian interventions imperative.

Amid Afghanistan’s challenging conditions, Action for Development (AfD) remains steadfast in its commitment to alleviating human suffering through its humanitarian efforts, guided by the fundamental principles of providing relief in response to emergencies. To maximize the impact of the generous funds provided by GlobalGiving, AfD strategically divided its aid distribution to address the seasonal challenges faced by vulnerable families. Resources were allocated for both summer and winter, focusing more on the winter due to the severe impact of cold weather, lack of income, and insufficient crops. During the summer, AfD provided food assistance to families of street-working children, recognizing their immediate needs. In the winter, understanding the intensified hardships, the aid was diversified to include not only these families but also rural impoverished families, ensuring both groups received essential support to navigate the harsh realities of the season.

Two-Fold Winterization Assistance

1. Support for Street-Working Children: This project targeted the immediate needs of children working on the streets and their families. By providing coal for heating and rice and oil for nutrition, AfD aimed to mitigate the winter’s harsh impact, which took place between 15 December 2023 and 30 January 2024. The beneficiaries, mainly women and children acting as the primary earners of their families, live in extreme poverty. During this period, 220 families received support (approximately 1540 individuals). Of these, 170 families were inhabitants of Kabul province, and 50 families inhabitants of Parwan province.

2. Aid for Adults and Broader Families: Recognizing the broader community’s struggles, especially during the winter months when income opportunities dwindle and crops fail, AfD expanded its support to include the distribution of flour and rice to adults. This initiative allowed 60 families, nearly 450 individuals, located in Parwan province to receive sustenance essential for enduring the winter, considering the prevalent lack of income and crops, and helped to alleviate the food insecurity that grips vulnerable families during the coldest months.

Impact and Beneficiary Feedback

The winterization aid has profoundly impacted on the lives of the beneficiaries, most of whom are women and children, acting as the primary earners for their families and families living off of less than $1 per day. Testimonials from recipients like Sadiq, an 11-year-old student at the Working Children School, and Rahmatullah, an unemployed father, highlight the difference these packages make: “We are very grateful and very happy for these food items. These will help us survive at least months of extreme winter in Kabul.”

The Winterization Aid Project 2024 reflects AfD’s commitment to supporting the most vulnerable segments of society during critical periods. By addressing the basic needs for warmth and nutrition, AfD not only helps families survive the winter months but also affirms the dignity and resilience of those facing economic hardships. As we move forward, AfD remains dedicated to expanding its efforts, ensuring that families in need have the support they need to weather the hardships of winter.

Links:

Action for Development Homepage

Permalink

Oct 26, 2023
Let us cuddle with warmth the families in need

By M. Khaksar | Project Officer

Coal distribution

Providing means for survival in the most difficult times of the year and to the poorest families is essential. AfD intends to provide people with food and livelihoods support as during the famine and cold – this will have the high priority. Winterization assistance provided by AfD is a live saving support to the most vulnerable individuals. Our beneficiaries are mainly women headed families, families with disabled children or disabled head of the family; we also include the families who mainly live on earning below 1$ per day. Our winterization program protects these families from harsh weather conditions.

The winter season brings with it increased vulnerabilities, this is because of the limited opportunities for food production, low crop harvests and lack of income generation. Many families depend on the livestock’s who also in the country as Afghanistan face immense problems – such as disease and lack of postures, majority of them also get wasted directly and indirectly due to the cold.

Early collection and availability of funds, will enable us to plan, procure and pre-position winter items prior to the cold season and heavy snow falls. As majority of the families depend on burning wood and coal for surviving the winter, we need to prepare in advance and purchase these materials until it is still dry, since after the rain the wood and coal will be wet, weigh more in weight and would need to get dry for utilization. Your timely donations will alleviate the adoption of negative coping mechanisms, lessen occurrences of respiratory infections among the children and adults, and prevent under 5 mortalities, hypothermia.

With 81% of households having insufficient winter clothes and 77% lacking access to heating material, more than 1 million people reside in high priority districts will need seasonal support to prevent health risks and other hazards.

We thank you for your collaboration with these families and hope to hear from you and receive your support to this most needed and life-saving project.

Kind regards,

Food distribution address famine problem

distribution of douvets

Permalink

Jun 28, 2023
Help us save lives this winter

By L. Moser | Communications Department

We are in the progress of preparing Winterization aid for the upcoming 2023/2024 winter season

Afghanistan is in a state of severe economic, political, societal, environmental, and security fragility. In addition to the pre-existing problems that had devastated the country, the return of the Taliban and the war in Ukraine has put an additional burden on the population’s freefalling economy and soaring food prices; leaving the country at the highest risk of famine in 25 years. More than six million people face emergency-level food insecurity at the moment, a number that has risen drastically compared to 2022. As a result, it is estimated that four million children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, requiring urgent humanitarian interventions to meet basic food needs. Especially women and children face challenges and suffer disproportionally.

The problems of the people in Afghanistan become more severe during winter. In addition, 2022 saw the coldest winter in over a decade according to the UNHCR. During the harsh winter months, severe climate changes and negative temperatures as low as -32 Celsius have negative impacts on the agricultural sector and food prices, forcing people to adopt poor coping strategies such as reducing their overall food consumption or trading food. Many reports showed that families were selling their young daughters of different ages into marriage, in order to be able to obtain some means to survive the hunger. Buidling on the findings from the available research and assessment, AfD decided to provide food support to the families suffering from low income and lack of resources, with priority on widows, orphans, families with disabled lead, and families of street-working children.

Given this emergency, and having identified the food crisis as a high priority during the needs assessment, AfD not only distributed coal to combat the cold winter months but also food and quilts as part of its emergency winterization project for the families of street-working children and labors in Kabul, Parwan and Paktiya provinces. In addition, due to the existing health needs and weak health systems and services, AfD set up a mobile health clinic in the Paktiya province.

During the current summer months, AfD is already preparing its Winterization aid for the upcoming winter. We would be very grateful to be able to count on your donations again this year. Your support enables us to support the people of Afghanistan and save lives in the upcoming winter season.

Thank you.

Permalink

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.