Background

As part of our effort to bring joy to our poor brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, International Welfare Relief Organisation provides Iftar parcels yearly 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, we have over 2,750 widowed women and their families in our registers in the 4 provinces of Afghanistan (Herat, Kabul, Ghazni & Balkh) (with a minimum of 16 individuals per family 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.

Our aim is to feed 2,750 poor families in 4 cities of Afghanistan for which the breakdown is as follows:

1. 700 families in Herat
2. 350 families in Ghazni
3. 700 families in Balkh
4. 1,000 families in Kabul

 

Many poor Muslim brothers and sisters have only basic meals of dry bread and water or milk, if they can afford it.  We are asking for your support towards the Ramadhan Appeal Food Parcel Programme to assist the desperate widow families who have to constantly struggle.

What better time to express your generosity and receive Thawab than in the Holy month of Ramadan?

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 15 cents/11 pence per night to feed one person in a Widow Family of 16 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

Ramadhan 2021 came with new challenges where restrictions from Covid-19 pandemic still existed but situations had gotten even worse due to all borders being closed with countries in direct access of Afghanistan. Afghanistan being a mountainous landlocked republic in Central Asia is bordered by Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to the north, Iran in west, Pakistan in east and south and it has a small stretch of border in north east with both China and India (disputed because in Pakistan occupied Kashmir).

The closure of borders has directly impacted the cost and availability of food as merchants are taking advantage of the situation and have inflated the prices of necessary items.

Where a food basket of $71 could initially have provided 50 kg Flour, 5 litres Oil, 5 kg Rice, 5 kg Sugar, 2 kg Dates, 2 Kg Tea, and 5 kg Lentils, inflated prices had to make us take a difficult decision of cutting down the items in a basket to support as many families as possible within the means available.

2021 Ramadhan food basket comprised of 50 Kgs of flour and 10 Litres of oil for a total of $61.00. These 2 items are staples of the country and a family would be able survive on these 2 if they had access to vegetables from local farms.

The number of items in the original basket would have cost over $100 which would mean less families receiving assistance within the available resources.

With the donations received from our esteemed donors, IWRO could distribute 182 food baskets to very poor families of widows and orphans of Herat Province, Afghanistan. The need was many folds more that the number of baskets distributed and we pray that Inshallah next year we are able to do a lot more that the current year to provide assistance to the deserving families of widows and orphans of Afghanistan.

On behalf of the recipients of Herat, IWRO would like to thank all its donors for their generous support towards this noble cause and we hope that you will always support our projects in the coming future.

THANK YOU !