Ramadan Campaign 2018 – Hunger-free packages for Kabul and Herat

Kabul and Herat, Afghanistan

Project start: 2018

Completed

Target achieved:

22.275 €

Winters in Afghanistan are freezing cold. In addition to life-threatening temperatures and heavy snowfall, people here also have to cope with food shortages due to drought. According to the UNHCR (2017/12), 2.6 million internally displaced persons find themselves in such a degrading situation.

Displaced or fleeing from conflicts or drought in their own country, they usually have no choice but to fight for survival in refugee camps in their thousands. They have to suffer the cold and sleep in tents at temperatures as low as -15 degrees Celsius, often without blankets or warm clothing. Due to the lack of job opportunities, people are barely able to find a way out of poverty. The wages for occasional work as a day laborer are simply not enough to feed their own families.

Initial situation

In Herat, we established contact with 50 children who were originally street workers through the small foundation “Bonyad Nikukari dasthaye”. However, with the support of the foundation, they can now attend school. Due to the limited resources of the foundation, which is run solely by private individuals, it is difficult to provide the children and their families with basic foodstuffs, which hits them particularly hard during Ramadan.

The situation in Kabul is similar. Our partner association “Kufa e.V.” runs a support center here where children can learn the basics of arithmetic and writing as well as practical activities such as carpentry. A total of 70 children visit the center sporadically to take advantage of the leisure activities on offer and to distract themselves from the street work that these children are actually forced to do. The children and their families live in the poorer areas of Kabul and urgently need support.

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PROBLEM SOLUTION AND RESULT

In Afghanistan, just €30 is enough to feed a family of 4 to 5 for a whole month. During the month of fasting, we would like to provide families in Herat and Kabul with basic foodstuffs. We rely on the principle of direct aid – in this case, this means that our local partners and members buy the food (rice, oil, beans, flour, salt, tea and sugar) and distribute it directly to the families – shortly before the fasting month.

The donation requirement for the needy children in Kabul and Herat was already reached in May 2018. In fact, the 2018 Ramadan campaign was the most successful fundraising appeal we have ever had! The total donation amount of € 22,275.43 (as of June 2018) exceeded all previous campaigns and is therefore the association’s record to date.

In Herat, we were able to feed all the children and their families with the hunger-free parcels. Our association member Winuss procured the food locally in Herat and distributed it to the families in need. The project was implemented at the beginning of May – just in time for the start of Ramadan. Supplies were ensured for a total of two months. Following the overwhelming willingness to donate, we decided to extend the campaign in Herat and provide the families with supplies for a further two months.

The hunger-free packages in Kabul were also able to fully provide for the children and their families. Here too, the parcels were procured at the beginning of May and distributed to the children in need by our local partner Kufa.

As we do every year, we also provided the children in both Herat and Kabul with Eid gifts. In Herat, the children received shirts, scarves and shoes as well as sweets. In Kabul there were sweets as well as shoes and shirts.