"THE ONE THING I ASK YOU NOT TO DO,PLEASE DON'T DO IT. IS TO FORGET AFGHANISTAN”; A SUMMARY OF STREET-CHILD'S AFGHANISTAN WEBINAR

Earlier this month, Street Child hosted a moving live webinar where supporters were given the opportunity to hear from those still on the ground in the country and understand the escalating humanitarian crisis. Our CEO and founder, Tom Dannatt chaired the session while our Global Head of Education and Asia Programmes, Ramya Madhavan led the discussion. She was joined by our Country Representative, Hamidullah Abawi, alongside guest speaker; activist, journalist and one of the TIME 2021 100 most influential people, Mahbouba Seraj. The webinar focused on three main topics; The changing landscape of Afghanistan, protecting the progress made for children and responding to emerging needs.

A changing landscape

Madame Seraj gave an emotional first-hand description of what it was like to be in Afghanistan during the takeover and transition to the Taliban and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. She described how even days after the transition in government on the 15th August, she saw the number of children on the streets increase dramatically and spoke of her concerns for women and young girls. She said:

In this context, Hamidullah Abawi spoke on how the Taliban takeover has exacerbated already existing challenges. He described the intensifying food and water scarcity, with 22.8 million people now in food crisis. Alongside the worst drought in 27 years and a sudden economic collapse, Street Child are now focusing on mitigating any further devastating consequences with the focus on serving the people of Afghanistan.

Protecting the progress made for children

Hamidullah Abawi spoke of Street Child’s ability to continue running our programmes despite the change in government due to our community-based approach. Through maintaining and strengthening relationships with communities and community elders, Street Child has been able to continue running our programmes, even in the most remote and rural areas. For this reason, Street Child continues to provide access to education to 40,000 children, including girls.

Madame Seraj highlighted the importance for humanitarian organisations to continue operating in Afghanistan despite the difficulties they are facing. She spoke on how the school environment is more than just a place of education; school provides these children with a routine, access to food, access to shelter and most importantly the opportunity to play, laugh and socialise with other children. She described school as:

Responding to emerging needs

Ramya Madhavan highlighted over half the population is at risk of imminent starvation and with winter approaching and temperatures as low as -20, humanitarian needs will rise exponentially. Hamidullah Abawi spoke on how Street Child is responding to this; Street Child are currently advocating for winterisation kits, WASH facilities, school feeding, food items and multipurpose cash grants for children and their families. This is an urgent response which Street Child are in the process implementing. Ramya Madhavan highlighted why this work is so important:

Question and answer

The Q&A led the discussion to go deeper into issues such as the how inflation is impacting access to cash and the knock-on effect this is having on humanitarian organisations. The webinar ended on a powerful note, with both Hamidullah Abawi and Madame Seraj speaking powerfully as to what gives them hope to continue going to work every morning.

When asked what the one thing the international community should do to help Afghanistan, Madame Seraj responded: