HIGHLIGHTS
ACF provides humanitarian lifeline during the Ghor winter.
A family story of life in the Kabul Informal Settlements.
Humanitarian community appeals for US$393 million, the absolute minimum to save lives in 2016.
Getting mines out of the ground in Afghanistan.
Surviving the Ghor winter: an ACF lifeline
Abdul Rahman yearns to return to his farm in the Nalenj area of Charsadra District in Ghor Province, where he managed to provide for his family of seven by harvesting wheat.
Ongoing armed skirmishes between the Taliban and Afghanistan National Security Forces forced the family to flee six months ago to the provincial capital of Chaghcharan and Rahman is not sure when his village will be safe enough to return. “Finding work in Chaghcharan is difficult. It is a very small city with limited opportunities for employment,” says the 50-year-old father of four sons and a daughter. The land around the city is not very fertile, yielding few prospects for the agricultural-related work to which Rahman is most accustomed. Competition is fierce for the few jobs that are available in Chaghcharan, which currently hosts hundreds of internally displaced families.
Family relies on humanitarian lifeline for survival
Most of Chaghcharan’s residents are poor and lack the income required for construction projects that would provide Rahman with an opportunity to work odd jobs as a day labourer. He has no funds to start his own business. “I am going through a very bad time. I am jobless now and rely on external assistance. I have no source of income to buy food for my family or to pay for medical treatment for my sick children,” he says.
Rahman, his wife, their sons Qurban, 10, Mubarak Sha, 7, Abdul Samad, 5, and Abdul Basit, 2 and daughter Sayera 3 managed to find shelter thanks to the kindness of a community elder, who allows the family to stay for free in a one-room house on his property on the northern outskirts of Chaghcharan.
Rahman is a stay-at-home father these days. He cares for his children while his wife attends a poultry farming training course. The couple hopes to establish a small homebased poultry farm once the course is completed that will provide a source of income for their family.
ACF distributes multi-purpose cash
Rahman was one of the beneficiaries deemed eligible for assistance under an Action contre la Faim (ACF) project. ACF received US$195,000 in funding from the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) to address gaps in winterization assistance to 900 shockaffected and extremely vulnerable households in Chaghcharan city and the Allah Yar area, located on the outskirts of Chaghcharan.
As soon as Rahman received his grant of 7,000 Afghanis (approximately US$100) from ACF, he paid off the family’s 2,000 Afghanis debt at a local shop, where he had previously purchased food on credit.
During the winter, incidents of acute respiratory infection are high among vulnerable families eligible for ACF winterization assistance. Rahman spent a portion of the cash he received from ACF on medical treatment for two of his children who suffered from the infection. He also purchased a 10 kg can of vegetable oil and intends to use the remaining funds on food.