Afghanistan: Welthungerhilfe Continues to Reach People in Need
Humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: Welthungerhilfe resumes work in various parts of the country.
Bonn/Berlin, 08. May 2023. Welthungerhilfe will continue to provide support to people in need in Afghanistan. Like the United Nations, it engages in discussions with local authorities to ensure that women have unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance and can continue their work.
After women were banned from working last December, Welthungerhilfe paused its projects until mid-February in order to support talks being held by the international community and to adjust its operating procedures in response to the changes. The focus of these decisions was on the safety of local female staff. Since February, aid supplies urgently needed for the survival of local families have been distributed in various parts of the country.
“We have been in close communication with the local authorities in all our project regions to find a solution to this dilemma. We can ensure that our assistance reaches the women and girls. With the country coming out of a long winter, we focussed our humanitarian aid efforts on distributing food and cash, through which we supported more than 35,000 households in February and March. In addition, around 3,000 households received feed for their animals. Since April, we have also been distributing agricultural equipment as well as seeds for vegetable gardens,” says Mathias Mogge, the secretary general of Welthungerhilfe.
Welthungerhilfe is concerned about dwindling international support for people in need in Afghanistan. So far only around 5 percent of the aid funding required for 2023 has been made available. “There is a risk of the hunger and poverty here fading from the public eye because the de facto government is maintaining its ban on women working and because there are many other humanitarian crises in the world,” warns Mogge.
Our country director for Afghanistan, Thomas ten Boer, is available for interview (in English).
Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest private aid organisations in Germany and has no political or religious affiliations. It is fighting for “Zero Hunger by 2030”. Since its inception, it has provided funding of EUR 4.46 billion for more than 10,895 overseas projects in 70 countries. Welthungerhilfe operates according to the foundational principle of help for self-help, which it implements with measures ranging from rapid disaster relief to rehabilitation to long-term development co-operation projects with national and international partner organisations.
