Background

As part of our effort to bring joy to our poor brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, International Welfare Relief Organisation provides Iftar parcels during the Holy month of Ramadan.

Why Afghanistan?

Recent visits to Afghanistan have displayed poor and destitute conditions of Muslims which has now compounded with the current health climate which have made situations even worse.

Afghanistan:

The 2017 Afghanistan zero hunger strategic review found that the country suffers from high, and in some cases rapidly rising, levels of food insecurity and undernutrition. Afghanistan’s poverty rate has worsened sharply over the past five years as the economy has stalled and the Taliban insurgency has spread, with more than half the population living on less than a dollar a day.

In November 2019, UN reported that from August to October 2019, around one-third of the Afghan population required urgent humanitarian action, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert, which declared that about 10.23 million people are living in a state of “severe acute food insecurity”.

Current Situation

The current unprecedented circumstances have engulfed approximately over 2,500 widowed women and their families (approx. 12 -16 people of 2-3 generations of widows and their orphans per household) in a very dire situation whereby the families have no means of earning nor sustaining themselves. Prior to the lockdown, widows would work as house help in the neighbourhood for a daily wage and if no work was available then they would beg near a mosque where they would get enough to feed the household a meal for the day. Now the situation is such that they don’t even have enough to have one meal a day and are at the point of starving to death.

Summary

It is estimated that the number of people who die from hunger and poverty each year is 25 times higher than those who die from conflict. Drought and the global food crisis have pushed more people into food insecurity.

While we are able to fast and know for certain that we will have food at the end of our fast, this is not the case for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. For many of these families, the Iftar meals, received from the food parcels, is possibly the only decent meal they have had in days, maybe even weeks.

The number of women and children that benefit from your generosity is dependent on your donations.

Impact

• it takes just a little over $2 per night to feed a needy poor and widow Family
• it only costs 20 cents/17 pence per night to feed one person in a Widow Family of 12
• for 30 days many families in many communities will be able to eat a nourishing and decent meals
• Families who currently have no means to earn, are in desperate situations, and are starving to death during this month of blessings will get a new lifeline

International Welfare Relief Organisation would like to thank WF Aid for the relief funds provided towards supporting the Ramadan Appeal by contributing $16,750.00. We pray that the Almighty grants us more opportunities to work together for the betterment and relief of the humanity.

The cost per food parcel was $67.00 and this comprised of 50 kg flour, 5 litre oil, 2 kg tea, 5 kg rice, 5 kg sugar, 2 kg dates, and 5 kg Washing powder.

The donation received provided support in feeding 250 hungry widowed and orphaned families in the city of Herat during the holy month of Ramadan.

We would like to appeal to our donors for their continued support in providing these desperate and destitute families with donations towards our income generation projects which will provide poor families with a source of income and in turn enable them to live their life with dignity. The program will facilitate in alleviating them from poverty, break the chain of dependency as beneficiaries and provide them the opportunity to become future contributors in society.

Thank You !