Winterization Aid for Afghan communities

This year marked one of the worst and harshest weather conditions in overall Afghanistan.

Number of snow storms in the northern regions were followed with a number of avalanches and a blast of oil tankers in the tunnel of Salang which connects the capital of the country to the Mazare-Sharif (Balkh province – and from there to other northern provinces). These accidents have had dozens killed. The cold weather, high unemployment rate, famine and difficult socio-economic situation of millions of Afghanistan families marked the highest suffering rates.

In Afghanistan, our campaign started at the beginning of winter and till today made a significant progress. Upon discussions with the local key informants about the best modalities of winterization support this year, AfD was advised to focus on food distribution as it would have a life-saving affect, due to high famine rate.   Many reports depicted the facts that families were selling their young daughters of different ages into marriage, just to obtain some means to survive the hunger. Building on the findings from the available researches and assessment AfD decided to provide food support to the families suffering from the low income and lack of resources, with priorities on widows, orphans, families with disabled lead.

Part of the funds of winterization support were attributed to rice bags (25kilograms) and cooking oil (5 kilograms). These were distributed to the vulnerable families in Kabul initially and with within next two weeks in Parwan province, covering a total of 190 families in Kabul province and 85 families in Parwan province (275 families in total).

Right after the distribution of food items in Kabul province the cold weather marked (-17/-19) degrees C during the night and (-6/-4) degrees Celsius during the days. This situation was so dire that we could not wait further and immediately started distribution of coal bags as well. As a result 190 coal bags were distributed around Kabul city to the families of street working children, widows and families who earn less than 1$ per day and an additional 85 coal bags were distributed to families with the above criteria in Parwan province.

AfD is thankful to the donors who trust our program and are there to support us in the time of need and urgency. Without the support of the dedicated donations AfD received through different means, we would have not been able to implement these actions. Your donations have helped to save lives of approximately 2,500 persons during this winter season, 30% of these are children below 12 years old.