Tower and Town, October 2021 (view the full edition)AfghanaidAfghanaid has worked in Afghanistan for close to forty years. In any one year we are typically working to support well over one million Afghan men, women and children - approximately one thirtieth of the population.  Over the last decade, our main areas of work have centred around climate change adaptation, (the Afghanistan Resilience Consortium), promoting women's economic engagement and community participation, clean water and improved sanitation and a variety of programmes in response to drought, famine, the Coronavirus pandemic, and other natural disasters. Factored into all of our work are the principles of good governance, community involvement and the participation of both men and women, generating a great deal of long term community acceptance. In the past three years, we have established over 90 community-based disaster management committees, built 23 flood protection walls, installed more than 530 solar pumps, and supported over 12,000 women to access credit for their enterprises through local savings groups. In 2019 and 2020, we planted over 525,000 trees in 5 provinces across the country. In the last year we have also delivered courses for women in literacy and numeracy skills, tailoring, poultry-rearing, book-keeping, bee keeping, dairy processing and gabion weaving. However, progress made in gender equality and climate change adaptation currently hangs in the balance following the recent violence and change of power. So far, the Taliban leadership have been supportive of NGOs and that position is also being adopted by local commanders. We are in the process of negotiating access in some areas and in others we have already been able to re-open our offices. Our longstanding roots in these local communities and our reputation for impartiality have been a huge strength during this time. The Kabul office is open. In addition we are currently delivering emergency support to families whose lives have been destroyed or uprooted by the conflict. With the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, we were already supporting 18,500 men, women and children who have fled their homes with essential household items, such as hygiene and kitchen kits, as well as emergency food parcels and vital help to keep roofs over their heads. We have now launched an appeal to allow us to urgently increase the number of people we can reach with this assistance. The future of Afghanistan remains very unclear, but, as with previous times of difficulty, Afghanaid will continue to work alongside local people to help them overcome the challenges they face and ensure they can live in peace and security. Please donate today www.afghanaid.org.uk/Appeal/help-families-in-afghanistan Chris Kindler |