Donate for Afghanistan
Emergency assistance for Afghanistan
+++ Over 2,200 dead after severe earthquakes in Afghanistan: Help provides emergency aid and urgently requests donations. +++
Severe earthquakes have shaken eastern Afghanistan. The United Nations estimates that around 500,000 people could be affected by the disaster. Help is on site and providing survivors with cash assistance.
How is Help providing support in Afghanistan?
Emergency assistance after earthquake in Afghanistan
Following the devastating earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan, numerous families are in need of assistance. The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.0, caused countless houses to collapse and destroyed entire villages. At least 2,200 people lost their lives in the disaster, over 4,000 were injured and many people are still missing.
The earthquake zone in the remote mountain region on the border with Pakistan is difficult to access. Many affected villages are currently only accessible by air or after walking for hours.
Help is providing emergency aid: we are supplying affected families with cash assistance so that they can buy the relief supplies they need most urgently – such as food, blankets or firewood. To do this, we are dependent on donations and urgently request your support:
Alleviating hardship
We are currently providing relief supplies and cash to families in need, including many people who had sought protection in Iran and have now been forced to return to Afghanistan. In the western Afghan provinces of Herat and Farah, we are helping small farmers to secure their agricultural livelihoods and make them sustainable so that they can provide for themselves and their families in the long term.
Over the past 20 years, Help has been particularly committed to giving young people a self-determined future. In addition to six months of training in manual trades, the project participants received food aid and psychological support, among other things. They were then able to earn their own income and overcome poverty.
We have also dedicated ourselves to protecting children in need: We ran two orphanages in Herat, set up emergency services for violence against children and provided psychosocial support for children, young people and their caregivers.
From 1981 to 1997, numerous projects were implemented in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries in the areas of education, health and agriculture. Only during the Taliban rule from 1998 to 2001 did Help not implement any projects in Afghanistan.
What is the situation like in Afghanistan?
Serious humanitarian crisis
War, violence and oppression have dominated everyday life in Afghanistan for decades. The invasion and subsequent occupation by the Soviet Union (1979-1989) was followed by years of civil war, which culminated in the Taliban coming to power. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the international coalition toppled the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, but the danger to the civilian population from daily attacks remained.
Today, Afghanistan is once again the scene of a serious humanitarian crisis. Following the withdrawal of NATO and US troops, whose deployment in recent years had ensured a degree of stability, fighting has flared up again in the war-torn country. In 2021, the Taliban recaptured most of Afghanistan within a few weeks and took control of Kabul. Four years later, more than half of the population is still dependent on humanitarian aid and in urgent need of food, drinking water and medical care. Women and children in Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable in this situation.
Since the beginning of the year, conditions on the border with Iran have been catastrophic: numerous Afghan families who had sought protection from persecution in Iran are currently being forced to leave the country or are being deported. Many of them arrive in Afghanistan with no prospects and are in urgent need of help. Help is supporting the people as best it can, but due to the international cuts in humanitarian aid, the need cannot be met. We are therefore urgently requesting donations for families in need in Afghanistan.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is one of the worst in the world – and it continues to worsen. Those who have been deported from Iran to Afghanistan are particularly hard hit – most of them without shelter, without possessions, without prospects. Due to public funding cuts for humanitarian aid, our hands are largely tied as a humanitarian actor in Afghanistan. This is costing lives. Afghanistan must not be forgotten.
Shafi Shirzad, Country Director Help Afghanistan
Donate now for our emergency aid in Afghanistan.
Q&A
In July 2021, NATO and US troops withdrew from Afghanistan after a 20-year mission. Within a very short space of time, the Taliban once again took control of Afghanistan and have largely wiped out the development successes of the last 20 years.
The humanitarian need in the country is great: almost 23 million people need help and almost 14.2 million people are suffering from acute food insecurity.
On October 7 and 11, 2023, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.3 worsened the humanitarian situation once again. 20 villages were destroyed, 1,000 people lost their lives and 2,000 people were injured. According to UN figures, around 17,000 people are affected by the earthquakes and their consequences.
Our projects in Afghanistan are funded by the following donors:
- Aktion Deutschland Hilft
- German Federal Foreign Office
- UNICEF
Find out which local partners we are working with in Afghanistan: Our partners
The Taliban's return to power is a bitter setback for Afghan women. Over the past 20 years, they have fought hard for their rights and achieved a lot of progress: for example, they have been allowed to go to school, study, teach, work as lawyers and participate in political decision-making processes.
Despite the Taliban's promises to respect women's rights and grant freedoms, a different picture has emerged within a few months: female journalists, activists, politicians and lawyers are being massively threatened, girls are being denied access to secondary schools and the burqa has been made compulsory again.
You can donate easily and securely online for our work in Afghanistan: Donate online
Alternatively, you have the option of transferring your donation to our donation account:
Help - Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe e.V.
IBAN: DE47 3708 0040 0240 0030 00
BIC: DRES DE FF 370
Keyword: Afghanistan
For donations of 10 euros or more, you will automatically receive a donation receipt in January of the following year.