Watching the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan worsen over the last 6 months has been heart breaking. Families are struggling to eat, struggling to work, struggling to access cash, struggling to stay safe, and struggling to cope with a country in ruin. 84% of health facilities have shut since the government takeover, and 1 million children are at risk of dying from malnutrition in the next 3 months alone. There is an estimated £3.25 billion (or $USD 4.4 billion) urgently needed to address this crisis.
How you continue to persevere in a context such as this is testament to the power of hope. That’s precisely what our staff on the frontline across Afghanistan continue to bring to more than 65,000 girls and boys on a daily basis: hope for a better tomorrow. And we’re doing everything we can to increase our support to 100,000 children as quickly as possible.
On 10 February, Street Child hosted a webinar with our team to discuss the current situation and share the reality of what life is like in Afghanistan right now. We were joined by Hamidullah Abawi (Street Child Country Representative), Fraidoon Amiri (Street Child Senior Programme Manager), Siddharth Pillai (Street Child Education Programme Manager), and Rahmatullah Alizai (Director at Social Association for Development of Afghanistan, SADA, one of our amazing local implementing partners). The session was chaired by Alice Lowden (Street Child Head of Communications).
Hamidullah Abawi spoke honestly about the reality of this complex humanitarian crisis. He said:
“I have seen hundreds of people standing outside a shop. They are waiting for one person to buy them a single piece of bread. I have seen thousands of people standing outside a bank to get access to their funds. I was standing there for 3 hours just to step inside the bank. I know how desperate the people are—the situation of our children, of our mothers.”
And yet, despite this growing desperation, what the team have managed to accomplish is simply incredible. They’ve had to be practical and innovative to ensure all our programmes continue amidst simultaneous crises: conflict, COVID-19, displacement, hunger, sub-zero temperatures, drought. Let that sink in for a minute. In the face of this humanitarian catastrophe, our 1,600+ staff have continued to show up to work, many around the clock; to show up for children every single day with education initiatives, even when temperatures dropped to as low as -20 degrees during the winter months, and they have continued to provide protection services to more than 15,000 children. In short, they’ve been a lifeline for thousands of families. Over the course of the hour, our panellists elaborated on how we’re continuing to operate and what it means for the children of Afghanistan.
“It would be unrealistic if I said we never face resistance or access challenges—we absolutely have and we absolutely will,” said Hamidullah Abawi, “but it’s our approach that helps us overcome these challenges.” Street Child prioritises a locally-led response wherever we operate. This means that we partner with local organisations, like SADA, and we recruit from the communities in which we work. Staff know the language, culture, and customs of the community, are trusted by them, have more access and acceptance from elders and community leaders and “can negotiate access with them at any time,” Hamidullah Abawi said. We’ve been fortunate in that whenever we face challenges in Afghanistan, we can get through discussing the importance of our programmes.
Rahmatullah Alizai spoke about the partnership between Street Child and SADA and how together we’re leading one of “the most important education projects in Southern Afghanistan,” reaching 9,000 students (3,354 girls) through 300 community-based schools. He explained that Zabul is one of the top three most deprived provinces, and through our combined presence, some children are being educated for the very first time. And strengthening this programme is our community relationships. Rahmatullah Alizai explained that “we have only needed to provide tents for 50 [of the 300] classes. The rest have been supported by the community themselves.” In fact, community elders have “called us to expand our support to surrounding villages.” In some there are as many as 23,000 children still out of school, but the desire to educate children is there. It’s only limited resources that prevent us from expanding immediately.
Rahmatullah Alizai added to this by saying that our joint project is “not just about 9,000 students, we have also recruited 300 teachers which are receiving a monthly income.” Which is no small feat. Hamidullah Abawi explained that recruitment of teachers has been difficult even prior to the worsening crisis. “Finding female teachers [in particular] has been a challenge throughout the last 20 years. In many areas where we respond, we realise there are not enough literate people to even begin to teach,” he said. Siddarth Pillai went on to describe that “there is also a regional angle as well…some provinces have only a handful of female teachers, but in Baghlan where we’re operating, we have more than 40% female teachers. Similarly, if you go to a province like Bamyan, we might end up having more than 60% of teachers being female.” Historically there were fewer numbers of girls enrolling in school, and so today, we’re faced with fewer women in the teaching workforce. As he put it, “it’s a vicious cycle,” but we are working hard to change this into a virtuous cycle.
Fraidoon Amiri explained how Street Child refuses to ignore the changing needs of the most vulnerable families, and how we have expanded and complemented our education programme with cash support. Due to the current economic crisis, inflation, and cash restrictions families are under immense strain trying to ensure their household has sufficient meals and food each day with millions in emergency levels of food insecurity. Fraidoon Amiri shared that families are already “using negative coping strategies – begging, borrowing food from others, taking debts, and selling assets”to provide for their families. In fact, he witnessed some families taking high risks by sending their children to schools in other districts, with children needing to walk as far as 10kms, just so they could receive a free meal. Street Child reacted swiftly, and through the mobilisation of funds, was able to provide cash to meet the immediate basic needs of 14,000 of extremely vulnerable families. Cash is incredibly important for allowing families to make choices for themselves, depending on their personal priorities, affording independence and dignity in the most devastating circumstances.
What the future holds for Afghanistan, we don’t know. But what we do know is that Street Child’s commitment to the children of Afghanistan remains unwavering. As Abawi put it, “our staff wake up every day with pride and hope for the country,” and it is this that enables us to carry on and persevere. Abawi reminded us that “education is the fundamental right of every child and the key to socioeconomic development of every country.” Afghanistan being no different. So we stay, we work, we create positive change.
Right now, we have the means to operate and expand our footprint to new provinces and reach even more children with urgent assistance, but the biggest barrier we face is access to ongoing funding. We have an ambitious target to raise £1 million flexible appeal funds to supplement our in-country grants so that we can continue to scale our operations in the months ahead. Street Child can transform the lives of thousands of children and families in Afghanistan, but we can’t do it alone. If you’re in a position to contribute to our efforts, Hamidullah Abawi explained it best: “your donation will go directly to save someone’s life.”